Naruto: Cyber sleuth
by Darkness999
Summary: Basically a banished naruto sent to the world of Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth. Based on the first game but will have digimon from Hackers Memory as they're set in the same timeline. Sorry for crappy summary. Pairings undecided
1. Eden

A young boy, around thirteen years of age and stood at height of five feet, four inches walked through the streets of Konoha with a backpack hung across his back. He had tanned skin, on his face were three markings on each cheek that would remind one of whiskers, like that of a cat or fox. On the boy's head, wild, spiky blonde hair that jutted out in all directions like a wild storm of gold. Saphire blue eyes that once shone like crystal dulled down to show a mix of emotion, hate, anger, grief...and sorrow. He wore a pair of orange pants with a dark blue shirt which was fully covered by a matching orange jacket. A pair of dark blue sandals donned his feet and a necklace made with a leather cord was wrapped around his neck, a green crystal that shone in the sunlight was what made said necklace, standout. This was Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze...former shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato. Naruto stopped at the main gate of Konoha and looked to see the large crowd that had gathered to see him leave, most were smiling in joyous glee as they watched the blonde about to leave the village, while only a select few... the ones that he could call friends, were filled with distress and sadness towards his current predicament. Naruto sighed as he remembered the earlier events that transpired yesterday afternoon.

Flashback

A large crowd had gathered in front of the main gate of Konohagakure no Sato because they had heard from a shinobi scout earlier that the squad that was sent to retrieve the traitor Sasuke Uchiha, of course not many saw him as such, from going to the village of Otogakure to join Orochimaru. Everyone watched and gasped at what they saw. They saw two figures, one was walking while the other seemed to be supported on the other figure's shoulders as the walking towards the gates. One wore an orange jacket over a dark blue t-shirt and orange pants, a weapons pouch attached behind him on his waist with blue ninja sandals, a Konoha hitai-ate tied around his forehead and had wild blonde hair that spiked up in every direction. The second was a black haired boy, the hair looking like that of a chicken's ass, who wore a blue t-shirt with the back having a small red and white fan imprinted on the back of it and a weapons pouch on his left thigh. White pants and blue ninja sandals completed the boy's outfit. These were Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha. The crowd immediately went into an uproar as they saw the scene, both boys were coated in red liquid...blood.

A pink haired girl with emerald green eyes and a red dress, eyes wide with fear and shock at the scene stood at the front of the roaring crowd. Two other girls stood with her, a platinum blonde with sky blue eyes that wore a purple tanktop and skirt. The second being a pale eyes girl, the eyes of a Hyuuga, with bluish black hair and wore a tan jacket and short navy blue pants. Both girl wore ninja sandals that were blue and had weapons pouches on their right thighs. As Naruto walked through the gates of Konoha, the blonde boy gasped in exhaustion and fell to his knees before gently resting the barely alive Sasuke on the ground next to him. Sakura ran up to them and knelt on the ground by Sasuke's unconscious form. Naruto showed his foxy grin to Sakura's trembling form.

"Don't worry, Sakura-chan he's only unconscious...I kept my promise" Naruto said with pride. However, that was ruined as Sakura turned and glared at Naruto before slapping him hard in the face that caused silence to form among the throng that watched the scene. The sound of the slap echoing for a while.

"I ASKED YOU TO BRING SASUKE-KUN BACK HEALTHY AND WELL, NOT BARELY ALIVE...YOU COULD HAVE KILLED HIM, THE ONE TIME I TRUST YOU TO DO SOMETHING AND YOU MESS IT UP JUST LIKE YOU ALWAYS DO, I HATE YOU...YOU...YOU DEMON!" Sakura yelled before focusing back on Sasuke. Naruto recoiled from the words, especially when he heard the words demon. Ino and Hinata were shocked at Sakura's behaviour. The two walked up to the pink haired girl and looked down at her with wide eyes.

"Sakura, sure Naruto beat up Sasuke-kun, but it was for the good of the mission, to help bring him back. I mean sure it's Naruto, but not even HE deserves what you just said" Ino said. Sakura turned and glared at Ino and Hinata.

"Ino, he hurt Sasuke-kun, he needs to be punished for hurting him" Sakura said. The crowd behind the girls heard this and yelled in agreement. Hinata's eyes widened before seeing the villagers grab various weapns that they had on hand like knives, shovels, kunai and other things. Ino and Hinata watched in shock at the villagers before looking at Naruto who looked like his soul had been ripped from his body and he was now a motionless puppet on the ground. Hinata stood in front of Naruto and got into the Jyuken fighting stance and her Byakugan blazed.

"I will not let you hurt Naruto-kun" she said in a firm voice.

"The demon has brainwashed the Hyuuga heiress, we'll have to punish him even more and have to kill the girl too" a villager yelled. Ino looked in shock at what was happening and she quickly ran to go tell Tsunade, but she didn't need to because the area was suddenly filled with killing intent, all coming from one angry Godaime Homage, Tsunade Senju.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE?" she yelled.

"Hokage-sama, the demon has brainwashed..." the man didn't get to finish before Tsunade punched him in the skull sending him into the crowd and knocking back the mob. Tsunade then turned and looked at Sakura before grabbing her by the throat.

"You dare insult my shinobi, if memory serves it's because of Naruto I was here as your Hokage...I could kill you right now" Tsunade said as she applied pressure causing Sakura to become blue in the face.

"But I won't, but this may serve as a warning to ALL OF YOU!" Tsunade roared before throwing Sakura down and then causing the girl to bounce back up into the air from the recoil force before punching Sakura in the face and sending her nearly half way across the village. Tsunade then picked up Naruto and carried him to the hospital along with Sasuke.

 **Hokage's Office**

Tsunade was angry about what happened during the earlier transgressions in the streets, but now she was down right pissed off because of what she and Jiraya, who had joined the meeting, heard.

"YOU WANT TO WHAT?" Tsunade and Jiraya yelled.

"We have decided, we the elders and the civilian council have decided that Naruto Uzumaki is to be banished for injuring a fellow Konoha shinobi" Koharu said.

"WHAT, that was the mission and I specifically said that extreme force could be used if necessary and from what I've heard from Shikamaru Nara, the team leader of the mission, Sasuke Uchiha used the Level 2 of the curse seal mark." Tsunade said.

"True, but Shikamaru also told us about the situation in which he had seen Naruto's using the Kyuubi's chakra during the battle and he is now proven dangerous from what we have seen of the Uchiha's body at the hospital" Homura said.

"What the fuck, the boy should be rewarded for bringing back your precious Uchiha and instead you banish him!" Jiraya yelled.

"It's the best course of action" Danzo, the one eyed war hawk said. Jiraya growled.

"That boy is not who you think he is, in fact he is not even a he...IT IS A DEMON!" the civilian council said.

"That 'demon' has save d this village more times than you count and he was the one that helped bring back Tsunade-sama as our Godaime Hokage" Shibi Aburame said. The arguemenjt between civilians and shinobi began and Tsunade looked at the arguement before finally having enough of it.

"ENOUGH!" she roared slamming her hands on the meeting table causing it crack straight down the middle and break in two.

"We'll take a vote then" Danzo said, "Who votes that the Kyuubi jinchuriki, Naruto Uzumaki be banished?" Danzo asked. The three elders and the entire civilian council raised their hands.

"Those opposed?" he asked. Jiraya, Tsunade and the shinobi council all raised theirs, but they dropped their heads in disappointment, they were outnumbered.

"There, it's settled, Naruto Uzumaki is to be banished" Homura said. Jiraya looked at them and muttered one word.

"Namikaze" he said. Everyone turned to look at the Gama Sannin.

"Excuse me, Jiraya-sama?" Tsume Inuzuka asked.

"Hid GODAMN NAME IS NAMIKAZE, NARUTO UZUMAKI NAMIKAZE, SON OF KUSHINA UZUMAKI AND MINATO NAMIKAZE, THE YONDAIME HOKAGE!" Jiraya roared before leaving the room in a poof of smoke not able to take the foolishness of these people any longer.

"Is this true Tsunade-sama?" everyone asked the Hokage. Tsunade looked downcast before looking up with tears in her chocolate brown eyes and nodded.

"Naruto...is Minato's son" she said, "and you all just banished his legacy" Tsunade said. She then walked towards the door and opened it.

"Sasuke Uchiha is to stripped of his shinobi status and forced to live for the rest of his life in a jail cell with chakra restricting seals on his body, if anyone has a problem with that..."Tsunade let loose her rage at full blast, killing intent filling the entire Hokage Tower and then some, "TAKE IT UP WITH ME AND WE'LL SEE WHAT HAPPENS TO YOU!" Tsunade then left the room to go and tell Naruto the news.

 **Konoha Hospital**

Naruto was sleeping in his room, but although he was physically fine, he was busy having a chat with his tenant.

Naruto stood in front of the cage of the demonic entity known as the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

"I can't believe she said that to me, after all I've done for her this is how she repays me...by calling me a demon" Naruto said as he knelt before the cage.

 **"Kit, don't worry yourself, she was bitch from the beginning and don't worry the best thing for you right now...is to leave this hell hole"** Kyuubi said. Naruto looked up at the nine tailed fox and stared into the fox's large crimson eyes.

"Kyuubi why? The villagers, Sakura, Sasuke...they've all betrayed, I have only a few people here that I can call friends, maybe...maybe you are right" Naruto said. Kyuubi nodded. Although Kyuubi was a bloodthirsty demon, he was a bloodthirsty demon with a heart and although he despised his container in the beginning, the unshakeable determination and strength Naruto had was enough to actually earn the demon's respect for his jinchuriki.

 **"I know I'm right"**

"And I should let down my mask...my mask of idiocy" Naruto said.

 **"You should, but are your emotions a mask too?"**

"No, my emotions were real as you and I...my feelings for my friends were real..." Naruto said. Kyuubi nodded his large vulpine head before raising his head.

 **"Well that's enough chit-chat, now come on wake up, that busty Hokage of yours is here to see you kit. We will talk later"** Kyuubi said and then there was a bright flash that burned Naruto's eyes before he found himself lying in a hospital bed underneath the bed sheets and covered in bandages. Naruto turned to face the door as he saw the knob turn and the door open to reveal the Godaime Hokgae herself.

"Oi Obaa-chan, what's up?" Naruto asked as she walked over to him. Tsunade didn't say anything until she reached his bed and then dropped to her knees and hugged the younger blonde. Naruto's eyes widened when he saw her do this and then wrapped his arms around her as she stained his hospital gown with tears.

"Obaa-chan what's wrong?" Naruto asked. Tsunade looked at Naruto with tears in her brown eyes.

"I-I, I really tried Naruto, I really did, but they outnumbered us" Tsunade said. Naruto looked at Tsunade oddly, tilting his head to the side. Tsunade's information was confusing him.

"What do you mena, who is they?" he asked.

"The council...they...they've banished you from Konoha" she said. Naruto froze, shock-still. Then he cast his head down low and began to cry. After the two cried their eyes out, Naruto and Tsunade looked at each other.

"Naruto I have something to tell you" Tsunade said. Naruto nodded as he wiped away the tears from his eyes.

"It's about your parents" Tsunade said. Naruto's eyes seemed to have brightened up at that information.

"Really, you know who they are?" Naruto asked. Tsunade smiled and gave a nod, 'affirmative'.

"Your mother was Kushina Uzumaki from the country of Uzugakure and your father...he was the Yellow Flash and Konoha's Yondaime Hokage, Minato Namikaze" Tsunade said. Naruto's eyes widened at realizing who is father was.

"Really, is this true? Am I really related to the Yondaime?" Naruto asked. Tsunade nodded and Naruto smiled before hugging the older blonde.

"Arigato, Obaa-chan" Naruto said. Tsunade smiled and returned the hug.

"Of course...you know I've always seen you as a little brother, Naruto" Tsunade said.

"And I have seen you as an elder sister, Tsunade" Naruto said. Tsunade backed up when he called her Tsunade.

"You just called me by my name" she stated.

"Yeah, well I can't call my sister figure by her name?" Naruto asked. Tsunade chuckled.

"Of course you can" Tsunade said. The two turned to hear the door opening and saw Jiraya walking into the room.

"Did you tell him yet?" Jiraya asked.

"Yeah, she told me, Ero-Sennin" Naruto said with a foxy grin. Jiraya chuckled and walked over to Naruto before reaching into his pockets and pulling out two scrolls, one with the kanji for Namikaze, the other for Uzumaki.

"Well then...I'm sorry I couldn't teach more Naruto, but here are the jutsu scrolls of your father and your mother. There's also a letter addressed to you from them at the beginning of each scroll" Jiraya said.

"Arigato, Ero-Sennin" Naruto said taking the scrolls.

"I will miss you, you would have been the best student I ever had, better than your father" Jiraya said. Naruto nodded and smiled.

"Well, how long do I have to get ready to leave the village?" Naruto asked.

"The council has given you enough time to pack your things and leave, you must leave by tomorrow afternoon though" Tsunade informed him. Naruto nodded and then Tsunade and Jiraya took him out of the hospital to help him pack.

End Flashback

"Get of here demon!" a villager yelled.

"Yeah, we don't need your kind in Konoha!" another said. Naruto sighed and then glared before unleashing some of the killing intent he had.

"You are all bakas, to think I even cared about saving your insolent and pathetic lives time after time. I'm glad I'm leaving this hell hole" Naruto said before spitting on the ground in front of the them. "May you all burn in hell" Naruto growled before turning to his friends of Team 8, Team 10 and Team Gai and looked at them as if to tell them, 'I still care for you though' The genin nodded and then watched as Naruto adjusted his backpack before channeling chakra into his feet and taking off at an insane speed so that in case anyone from the council was going to tail him, he would be far enough ahead to escape.

Naruto jumped from tree to tree before settling down in the forest as night began to fall.

 **Later**

Naruto was sitting by a fire while reading a map. "hmmmmm. According to this It would take me 3 days to make it to Suna... maybe I can stay with Gaara for a bit before continuing my journey"

" **Not a bad idea kit. You can use the opportunity to stock up on extra supplies."** Kyuubi added as Naruto nodded "well I best get some sleep" as Naruto began to put the map away he heard the sound of thunder from nearby. He jumped at the sound and looked up, only to see a clear sky "that was strange"

As he said this a few bolts of lightning struck down in front of him as what appeared to be a cracking started to form and began to pull him in. Naruto tried to hold on to a tree but was eventually pulled in along with his backpack "AHHHHHHHH" he screamed as he fell through the portal

 **Elsewhere**

A large white figure with glowing red eyes looked up towards the sky **"It is done. Please help us. Young Uzumaki"** The figure then lowered his head as he felt more of his conciousness begin to fade

 **Back with Naruto**

When Naruto awoke he found himself in a strange place he found himself in what looked like a narrow alleyway surrounded by the two largest buildings he had ever seen in his life "where on earth am I? Kyuubi? You still there?" he shouted to the fox demon **"Yeah, Yeah Kit. Stop shouting. I have sensitive hearing"** the Kyuubi grumbles "where are we? The last thing I remember was that weird cracking thing showing up" Naruto asked scratching his head

" **That was a wormhole Kit. A wormhole is a theoretical passage through space-time that could create shortcuts for long journeys across the universe. Basically we've entered another dimension."** Naruto raised an eyebrow at the demon "how on earth do you know all that" the Kyuubi scoffed at his question **"I've been alive a very long time Kit. I've seen other wormholes before. They show up at random."**

"so does that mean you've been to other world's before?" Kyuubi shook his head **"afraid not. Even I'm not stupid enough to go through one. You're just unlucky enough that you landed through one. We should look around the area."** Naruto nodded and did a familiar hands in "Kagebushin no Jutsu!" he yelled as a clone appeared in a puff of smoke "what the hell? I thought more clones would show up" Naruto yelled in confusion

" **Hang on Kit. I've did a small scan of your body. Somethings happened to your chakra coils."** Naruto widened his eyes "what do you mean?" Kyuubi shook his head **"It's either a side effect of the interdimesional travel or something with this world... basically you can't use as much Chakra as you used to. With the amount I can feel I'd say you could use the henge or create a few clones. But moves like the Rasengan are out. That's not all... the seal was damaged during the travel. Eventually I will disappear..."**

Naruto felt like his heart had just shattered. He became unable to use his best techniques, he's become severely weakened and he would lose his best friend. Tears started to form around his eyes as the kyuubi sighed **"Im sorry kit... i wish it could have been different. There is a plus side however. i wont disappear right away... it will take a couple of years before my soul vanishes. I will teach you the best I can.** Naruto wiped his eyes with a nod and looked out the alleyway and saw a lot of people wearing strange clothes. He decided to use a henge to make himself look older and wearing a suit with his hair combed back "this should do"

Kyuubi snickered at how silly he thought Naruto looked **"so what's the plan Kit?"** Naruto scratched his head "Well, first we have to buy a place, an apartment maybe luckily I still have my backpack and I had enough money in there to at least may one month's rent depending on the type of apartment we're buying" Naruto said as he began to walk around the town until he found a newspaper stand. Naruto took one and scanned through it until he found the section about homes for sale. There was an apartment which had one bedroom, a couch, television, air conditioning and a kitchen/living room, costing just the amount of money Naruto had in his bag.

So Kyuubi what do you think of this world so far?' Naruto asked his tenant as he entered the appartment after buying it

 **"It seems nice, really nice, the pollution leaves a lot to be desired, but other than that it's nice. You should use your henge to try and find a job. Youre money wont last forever"** Kyuubi said.

'Yeah, alright, damn you and your persuasive nature, damn it' Naruto thought before cutting off his connection with Kyuubi. Naruto bserved the apartment. It was small, larger than the apartment that he had in Konoha so it was pretty much okay to him. The kitchen had no food in the fridge so Naruto knew he had to go out shopping sometime later as well as for some clothes since the ones he was wearing now were the only set of clothes he had. There was a microwave and an electric stove too with a small kitchen table for two. "this will be my new life" Naruto thought "this is my second chance" he thought to himself. He began talking to the Kyuubi again. "So how long exactly till your soul disappears?" he asked with a devestated look on his face" the Kyuubi sighed **"it's hard to say, I'd say around 2 years... so I'll teach you the best I can until then"** Naruto nodded "thank you Kyuubi" the fox smiled **"Kurama. My real name is Kurama."** Naruto widened his eyes and smiles "Thank you... Kurama"

 **3 years later**

It's been 3 since Naruto entered this world. The now 16 year old stood at a nice 6ft 3in due to him getting better nutrition and his training. Kurama soul vanished a year ago and the blonde still missed him to tbis day. He now wore a black T-shirt with an orange fox on it as a way to remember him. Thanks to his henge he's been able to make a life for himself doing a number of odd jobs. What awed Naruto the most about this world was the Internet. Due to a company called Kamishiro there was a place called Eden were people could meet and communicate from anywhere. Naruto had never been to Eden before but he had heard a lot about it from everyone in his favourite chat room.

After accessing his usual chat site, Naruto quickly logged into his account. The monitor went blank for a while before a yellow logo greeted him with a cheerful voice. "Enjoy Chat!" He quickly tapped on the screen to access the server. "Welcome," the voice continued, "To Enjoy Chat!" A carousel of icons appeared before him. "Select a chat room."

Naruto maneuvered his cursor over a few icons before he spotted the private chat room he usually accessed. "Ah! There's Blue Box's icon!"

With a click, the voice made itself known again. "Please enter the password!"

After a few hesitant strokes on the keyboard, the former ninja quickly typed in the rest of the long string of characters Blue Box set as this week's password. The light blue loading bar gradually filled as it verified the code and soon, the lock on the corner of the chat room's icon undid itself with a click.

"Welcome!" the Enjoy Chat voice told him as Naruto was finally let into the chat room.

Naruto blinked as a slew of messages from the other visitors scrolled past him. He quickly skimmed through them, trying to get a grasp of the current happenings between all of his online friends. As usual, it was just a slew of random conversations, but Naruto took it all in before he saw two avatars chatting.

 _Hattie: You watch TV yesterday?_

 _yuki: I did! It was awesome!_

The teenager ignored them though as he dove further into the chat room where the rest of his online friends were gathered. He brightened as he found a spot for his avatar in their circle. Everyone seemed hyped up for some reason and Naruto quickly did his best to catch up on the conversation.

 _Dark Night Satan: What? What is it?_

 _Akkino: Hey guys! Ever heard of Digimon?_

 _Blue Box: What's this all of a sudden?_

 _Old Man Fanta: You're talking about Digimon programs, right? Those dangerous programs used by hackers._

"Digimon…?" Curious, Naruto asked a question of his own.

 _Kurama10: Dangerous? How dangerous, exactly?_

 _Old Man Fanta: They can break through security, steal data… enter password-protected forums with ease…_

 _Old Man Fanta: Those programs can do all kinds of nasty things! They're behind most of the incidents that have been happening._

 _Akkino: Wow, Digimon sound nuts!_

 _AlgerN0N: My friend got his account targeted by them. (;_))_

 _Love Crusher: No way…_

 _U Starving: When did this happen?_

 _Dark Night Satan: In some areas, Digimon roam around on their own…_

 _Akkino: Wait a minute, Digimon can move!?_

 _Old Man Fanta: It sounds like these programs have avatars. Kinda like monsters._

 _AlgerN0N: Digimon… like "Digital Monsters"?_

 _Akkino: Exactly!_

 _U Starving: When did this happen, exactly?_

Naruto blinked when a notification popped up with a chime. "Eh…? ' _Navit-kun_ has logged in?' I've never seen that name here before…"

To his surprise, a saw popped up in the middle of the chat room floor and began cutting out a circle. A sleek robotic figure came out of the resultant hole and its LCD face display read "EDEN" before a pinkish purple smiley face replaced it. To everyone's surprise, it began to chat with them.

 _Navit-kun: Yoooo, what's up, people!_

 _AlgerN0N: Whaaat, it's Navit-kun!_

 _Love Crusher: Huh? You mean that EDEN mascot?_

 _Akkino: Sorry man, no solicitations! Haha!_

 _Old Man Fanta: What the heck? Why would an EDEN official come all the way out here?_

 _Blue Box: …This was a private room, y'know? Just who are you?_

 _U Starving: And what's with that greeting? Hardly suiting an official…_

 _Akkino: Wait a minute… is he a hacker!?_

 _Love Crusher: Speak of the devil…_

 _AlgerN0N: For real!?_

 _Navit-kun: That's right! I'm_ Navit-kun, the hacker!

 _Navit-kun: I have a_ fantastic present _for all of you! Be sure to log in to_ EDEN _tomorrow!_

 _Navit-kun: Don't forget, now! If you don't login,_ I'll hack you!

 _Navit-kun: Buh-bye, now!_

With that, the mysterious Navit-kun left the chat room the same way he entered. Naruto blinked at the screen as another chime and notification revealed to him that Navit-kun logged out. Everyone else in the chat room remained silent for a moment as they all took in what just happened.

 _Old Man Fanta: What the heck… Was that an actual hacker?_

 _Akkino: No way, dude!_

 _Love Crusher: Think someone's playing a prank on us?_

 _Akkino: Sounds fun, don't it? Let's check it out!_

Nobody responded for a while. Naruto lightly drummed his fingers on his keyboard as he figured out how he wanted to respond. "Eh…? It seems interesting…"

 _Akkino: What, don't tell me y'all are chicken?_

 _Blue Box: You want to go, Akkino? What'll you do if it's a real hacker?_

 _Akkino: This is just PR for an EDEN event, ain't it? A REAL hacker would be cooler, though…_

 _Blue Box: …Sounds like I can't stop you. Fine, then I'll come with._

 _Akkino: What, is this a date now? You asking me out all of a sudden!?_

 _Blue Box: …Anyway._

 _Akkino: Anyone else gonna come with us?_

 _Old Man Fanta: Better safe than sorry. I'm out._

 _AlgerN0N: I'll pass!_

 _Love Crusher: Me, too._

Naruto watched the other avatars scatter. He smiled though as he finally came up with his decision. He made his puppet-like avatar jump before replying.

 _Kurama10: I'm in!_

And so the chatting continued for the three of them, although Naruto didn't comment much. He much preferred just listening while giving his opinion every now and then. Still, Akkino and Blue Box went on with their late-night gab fest. As always, topics were loose, with no real focus.

Eventually, dawn broke outside their windows. That was the day they were finally going to meet in EDEN. They spent the day much as they did the day before. And then, the appointed time drew near.

The ones and zeroes lined up in a non-descript pattern before breaking apart. The EDEN logo appeared before Naruto as he waited for the access point to fully activate. He blankly stared at the company name at the bottom of the logo as he did so.

"EDEN… by Kamishiro Enterprise," he thought aloud to kill the time. "An apple logo… Ah…? Like Adam and Eve? Kami is God, isn't it? I never realized that connection until now…" He smiled to himself as he further considered this line of thought, but suddenly the logo disappeared. "Ah… Time to go."

Naruto held up his hands and watched as the access point seemed to suck him into EDEN. He watched as the world around him turned white and soon it felt was as though he were zooming through the air. A great white sphere floated before him and he guessed that his destination was there. He stared at it in awe as he took in the wonders around him.

"So this is EDEN!" He brightly smiled at the sensation of flying through the digital landscape. "I never really had a reason to log on before, but this is amazing!"

As it was his first visit, an introductory AI began speaking to him via his goggle-style Digivice. "Welcome to the digital garden of EDEN! EDEN is a metaverse providing several revolutionary services in a new generation of digital content. Bountiful entertainment, including shopping and movies… Everything from corporate transactions to political administrations… Everyone's needs are met. I will be more than happy to introduce some of the available services that will be a part of your daily life."

"Eh…? Daily life? So some people log on every single day, huh? That's pretty impressive…" Naruto mused as he continued skimming through the world.

"The future of the net is not behind a screen. It is intuitive virtual reality through the use of avatars. I do hope you enjoy using our cutting-edge cyberspace services."

The curious boy waved his right arm a few times. "This really does feel like my actual body… That's pretty cool…"

"EDEN is a human network connecting the world to the future, run by Kamishiro Enterprise," the AI concluded as he landed on what felt like solid ground.

"And touchdown!" he smiled, his bright blue eyes gleaming in excitement. He reached a hand up to his goggles and cut the introductory transmission before it could offer him anymore help on the workings of EDEN. "Well… I'll get a better feel for EDEN by experiencing it myself. Now… Let's see…" He took a good look at his surroundings. "The entrance to EDEN. This is where we promised to meet." Naruto tapped his goggles to have a display of the time appear before him. "I'm here a little earlier than we'd agreed on. I'm guessing Akkino and Blue Box still aren't here." He then heard a chuckle He glanced around him again and didn't see anyone who could be his chat friends. "This'll be the first time I've met them outside a chat room." He closed his eyes and sighed as he considered something. "I don't know what their avatars look like, though." He opened his blue eyes again and smiled. "But I should be able to figure it out! I'll try making small talk with the EDEN avatars in the area!" With a nod to himself, he quickly set off in search of his online friends.

Naruto spotted a man wearing an orange hooded vest and blinked as he seemed out of place. The man stared back at the red-haired boy but said nothing.

After a few more seconds of staring, Naruto decided to walk past him with a shrug. _He's a bit suspicious, but I guess he's not doing anything wrong…_

The teen asked around if anyone had seen or knew anyone by the handles "Akkino" or "Blue Box" but didn't discover anything. He did pick up a few interesting rumors about EDEN though, although how monsters and ghosts worked in a cyber world eluded him. Eventually, Naruto let out a sigh as he stood in front of the entrance pavilion.

"They aren't here after all…" He crossed his arms and looked out over the entrance from his high vantage point.

Nearby, a boy noticed him. "Looking for your friends?" he asked.

"Yeah, I am," Naruto nodded.

"If they're not here, did you try looking in the community area?"

"Community area?"

"It's an open area just like the entrance, so you can get there from any terminal." The boy pointed at the round access point Naruto had noticed earlier when he landed.

"Oh, I see…" Naruto nodded. "Alright, thanks." He started down the stairs again and laughed at himself. "I guess I showed up too early after all." He tapped his goggles again. "There's still time left before our meeting!" he told himself. "Let's check out those other areas then!"

"This is the Community Area," Naruto said to himself as he landed. He curiously looked around and noticed the atmosphere here was much different from EDEN's entrance. "I like this place. It's quiet and relaxed." He flinched when the calm tranquility was sharply interrupted by his Digivice's Talk feature. "Who could it be?" He accepted the call only to see Navit-kun appear on the digital screen. "Huh!?"

"Hey there! It's me, Navit-kun!" The robotic figure happily jumped up and down as he reintroduced himself. After a while, it flashed Naruto an annoyed frown. "Just one sec~ You're behind schedule, silly! You're gonna be late! Hurry up! Come to Galacta Park in Cron!" Navit-kun began smiling again. "Your two friends arrived a little while ago and are waiting for you! I have a gift for you all, but everyone has to be there first! Buh-bye!"

Naruto frowned to himself when the call was abruptly cut. "Cron?" His eyes widened as he recognized the name of the area. "Isn't that the dangerous area full of hackers? Even I've heard the rumors of that area…" He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Okay, calm down. No need to panic." He opened his eyes and smirked. "I wonder what he meant by a 'gift'? Anyway, let's go to Galacta Park in Cron!" He started for the terminal but paused when he realized he had a slight problem. "I've never even been to EDEN before, let alone anywhere near Cron. How do I get there?" He scanned his surroundings again and noticed people scattered here and there. "There might be someone here who knows though. I'd better ask around!"

The teen frowned as he wasn't really getting the information he needed, but he pressed onward anyways. Everybody seemed too focused on their own enjoyment of EDEN but it was abundantly clear that the vast majority of users tend to avoid the deep underbellies of it. This only fueled Naruto's curiosity over whether Cron was truly deserving of such a reputation. Eventually he found someone who seemed to know something so walked up to the businessman standing near the scale replica of EDEN.

"Excuse me? Can I ask you something?" Naruto tapped him on the shoulder.

"Kinda busy here?" the man glared at him.

"Sorry, but it's my first time in EDEN and I wanted to know how to get to Cron," Naruto politely smiled.

The man's eyes widened. "What? You want to go to Cron!? But why!? It's lawless, and filled with hackers, besides!"

"So I hear, but…"

"If that's what you're into, we're done here," the man shook his head. "Go talk to a hacker if you want to know about it. There's a hacker-looking thug near the entrance."

"Hacker…?" Naruto blinked as he remembered the suspicious hooded man from before. "Oh! I see! Alright! Thanks, mister!"

The man sighed as Naruto started for the terminal. "Don't blame me for your foolish decision. Grow up and take responsibility for yourself."

"It can't be that bad," the teen shrugged as he returned to EDEN's entrance. He looked around for the hooded man and approached him without reservation. "Excuse me!"

The man frowned as he lifted his head to look at Naruto. The high school student stared at him with curious blue eyes before the hacker smirked at him. "Heh… 'I want to go. To Galacta Park, in Cron.' That's what you think you want. Isn't it?"

"That's right!" Naruto nodded with a smile.

"I'll show you the way." The hacker took out his cell phone model Digivice and sent a link to the curious teen. "This is the URL. To the area. Take it."

"Alright! Thanks!" Naruto verified the link and hurried towards the terminal. "Now I can go to Cron!"

The hacker crossed his arms and smirked at the younger male's excitability. _Heh… Another hacker is to be born, huh?_

Naruto couldn't help but let out a yell as he glided through cyberspace. He watched layer by layer of EDEN pass him as he dove further into the world. He soon noticed though, that the deeper he went, the darker EDEN seemed to get. "Huh… I suppose it is sketchy-looking… but it still can't be _that_ bad…" He felt his body begin to slow down as he neared his destination and he spotted a hooded black-haired boy. "Huh? Could that be…?" The taller boy on the ground looked up at him with a scowl on his face. "Blue Box?" Naruto guessed, but he couldn't confirm it as he continued past him.

The boy wearing the hooded coat raised an eyebrow as he studied Naruto. "Kurama10, huh? So he's finally here…" He shook his head as he returned to the park. "Well… I'd better give up my ghost hunt…"

Naruto continued his examination of his surroundings as he prepared to land and spotted the decrepit park as well as someone already there. "Ah…! This must be Akkino then!"

Although it had been her idea to check it out in the first place, the girl wearing the pink hooded jacket seemed rather lost and clearly out of place. She glanced around herself nervously, unsettled by the thought of being alone in such a seedy area. "Where did everybody go?" she whined before a moving dark grey and yellow mass caught her eye. She brightened when she spotted Naruto coming in for a landing. The girl puffed up her cheeks in annoyance as soon as he was close enough. "You have gotta be kidding!" she called out to him. "You're late! Soooo late!"

Naruto only gave her a bright smile as he placed his hands at the side of his hips. "Sorry I'm late! I'm Uzumaki Naruto, but call me Naruto. Would you happen to be Akkino, by any chance?"

The girl smiled back and nodded. "Oh, hey! Yep, I'm Akkino! This is your first time in EDEN, right? My real name's Shiramine Nokia! Nice. To. Meet. You!" Naruto flinched when Nokia suddenly blew up at him. "NOOOOT! You're late! What were you doing!? Leaving me alone in such a dangerous place. How would you feel if you were in my shoes?"

The blonde boy let out a nervous laugh. "I guess it is dangerous for a girl like you to be out here alone…" Naruto curiously looked around. "But what about Blue Box?"

Nokia paused. "You're asking if Blue Box has shown up yet? Oh, he showed up all right. But what does that even matter?" She crossed her arms and pouted. "Like, can you believe this? He's all, 'Oh, I've got to go and find a ghost,' and all of a sudden he's running off by himself. That's how he rolls, apparently! One hundred percent full of himself! Thinks he's all that just because he's got good looks or whatever. And so like, what? The Ghost of the Pale Boy? I've heard the rumors but don't know the details. What does he even plan to do if he finds it? I mean, ghosts in cyberspace? That's unscientific! It doesn't even make any sense! Not that I'm scared or noth—

The boy with black hair from earlier suddenly appeared behind her. "Boo!" Nokia let out a terrified shriek and hurried to Naruto's side. "Whoa, easy," the older boy smirked at her. "Overreacting a bit there, aren't we?"

"Oh, jeez, Arata-chan," Nokia frowned. "It's just you. I… I thought you were a ghost."

Arata rolled his eyes at her. "Sheesh. You don't have to act all tough by coming to a place like this if you're chicken, you know."

"Hey now! You're the one who ditched me in that 'place like this', Arata, you slimy little no-good—"

"Oh, just shut your trap. Anyhow…" The raven-haired boy looked over towards Naruto. "We've never met before, have we? I'm Sanada Arata. Nice to meet you and all that."

"Likewise," Naruto cheerfully smiled. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto!" Arata decided to ask his own question "What's with your nickname online? It's kind of a weird nickname" Naruto gave a sad smile "It's a reminder of someone dear to me" Arata could tell this was bring up bad memories and left it at that

"Hey now, that's no proper introduction!" Nokia shook her head. She waved her hand towards Arata as she spoke to Naruto. "You must've put two and two together by now, but this is the person behind Blue Box! He's not what you imagined, is he? In the chat, he's kind and considerate, like a reliable big-brother figure, right? When I first met him, I was really weirded out! He's surly, self-absorbed, got this weird look in his eye… I mean, talk about a waste of good looks, right?"

"H-huh…?" the blonde boy crookedly smiled as he didn't know how to answer her.

Arata shook his head. "Leave the stupidity for later, okay?" He looked around the area pensively. "So, while I was waiting, I took a little look around. I thought that 'Navit-kun' fellow who called us here might be around."

"What!?" Nokia seemed surprised at that. "I thought you were looking for a ghost!"

"Well, I was doing a little of that too," the older boy shrugged. "But in the end, I found neither. Rather, there wasn't anyone around to be found. You'd think there'd be one or two hackers in an area like Cron, no matter how dangerous it is."

"So the rumors are true then…" Naruto wistfully breathed. He flinched when his Digivice rang again, but even though he didn't pick up, the phone function activated itself.

"So very sorry to keep you waiting. I'm Navit-kun!" the cheery robot returned. "I've got something for all you good boys and girls who showed up here today! This is the miraculous power to change the world!"

Naruto felt a shiver run down his spine as his avatar began to flicker with static. "Eh!?"

"Huh? What?" Nokia stared down at her own avatar. "What is this?"

Arata scowled. "It's hacking! We've all been hacked!"

Naruto quickly took a quick look at his account settings. He became confused when he didn't really notice anything out of place, but he soon paused when he found a new program listed in his Digivice menu. "This looks like it's been forcefully installed… Digimon Capture?"

"Whoa. This Navit fellow is no slouch," Arata said, a bit impressed. "He broke through my firewall like it was nothing."

"Digimon… Capture?" Nokia frowned at the program that was now on her phone-like Digivice.

"It's a hacking tool that's been making the rounds with hackers lately," Arata explained.

"Wait, so when you say 'Digimon', you mean like, 'Digimon' Digimon!?" Nokia asked.

"Yes, those Digimon. The ones you're so interested in," Arata sighed as he pulled up a few digital displays and began checking out the program for himself. "Hmmm… There's a certain kind of data known as 'Digital Monsters' that you can 'capture' by scanning, this thing says. Ah, so 'Digimon' IS short for 'Digital Monster'."

"What?" Nokia didn't seem to believe it at all. "Whoa, hey, hang on! Digimon are like nasty programs that hackers use, right? So then…!? That means…" She shook her head. "Have we become hackers!?"

"Well, I suppose you could put it that way," Arata shrugged, seemingly unfazed by the whole ordeal. "Well, it's no big deal. Hackers are nothing out of the ordinary nowadays."

Naruto closed his eyes as he took in the situation. "I suppose…"

"No way! Nuh-uh!" Nokia frowned. "Hacker's are bad news! I am NOT doing this! I don't want any part of this!" She pressed a few buttons on her phone. "I'm gonna delete this program!" She tapped the screen a few times but blinked in confusion. "Ah, what? No way, you've gotta be kidding me! I can't uninstall this thing!?"

"Leave it be," Arata warned her. "The program's protected. Who knows what'll happen if you force-delete it."

"W-what do you mean?" Nokia asked in panic.

Naruto opened his eyes and shook his head. "It's alright. I mean, just because you have the program, it doesn't mean you have to use it. Still… I think it's worth—" he paused as something caught his eye. He looked over towards the path leading deeper into Cron and noticed someone running away. "H-hey!" Nokia and Arata turned towards where he was looking at. "So that was Navit-kun? Or could that be the ghost everyone's talking about?" _No wait… Both those things don't really have solid footsteps… A hacker then?_

Before Naruto could voice the rest of his thoughts, Arata immediately took off after whatever it was. "Don't let him get away!"

"Arata, hold up!" Nokia tried to reach out for his jacket but just missed. "Why are we chasing him?" She turned towards Naruto and shook her head. "I… I'm out of here! I'm going home, you hear!?"

"That's alright," Naruto shrugged. The two turned towards the path leading towards the terminal point but they saw something that made Naruto pause while Nokia froze up. "Huh… A firewall?" He frowned as he looked back towards where Arata disappeared to. _So it_ was _a hacker…_

"W-what is this?" Nokia frowned. "It wasn't here before. What's it doing here? Did some hacker do this too?" She nervously looked behind them at the path Arata took. "Is… is this telling us to keep going onward? Are they not letting us go home?"

Naruto brought a hand up to his mouth as he considered his options. "Arata could be in trouble. Let's go after him!" He took a few steps forward but noticed Nokia wasn't following him. "We might find an exit there too. Let's go look."

"No," Nokia shook her head and took a few steps backward. "I'm not going. I won't."

Naruto frowned as she was clearly shaking like a leaf. He sighed as there was no helping it if she was too scared to proceed. Still, it wasn't as though he could just leave her here. "Alright, then I'm going on ahead. If I find a way out, I'll come back, okay?" Nokia responded with a nod and Naruto made his way deeper into Cron.

Naruto stopped walking after a while and frowned when he realized Cron was more expansive than he thought. "Does the Cron area stretch all the way back through here?" he asked himself as he stared at the path before him. "It feels totally different from the cyberspace areas on the upper part of the EDEN Network." He brought a hand up to his mouth as he scanned for any sign of his friend. "There's no trace of Arata. He may have gone further inside." He sighed before starting off again. "I should be careful," he told himself.

Naruto continued walking around Cron to look for any sign of Arata until he heard a screech from nearby and ran towards the source. What he saw shocked him. He saw a large creature with multiple thin tentacles coming out of it attacking two smaller creatures. The first one was a beast-like creature with purple fur on most of its body. It had two large legs and two arms, each of which has three black claws, as well as a large, vulpine tail. The fur on its chest, paws, snout, and the end of its tail was white. It had two pointed ears with black stripes and two very small black wings. On its brow is a triangular red gem.

The second was a yellow dragon like creature with a black underbelly and had two arms and legs as well. The creature also wore what appeared to be black samurai armour and had a red gem on its forehead as well. Both the smaller creatures were heavily injured so Naruto decided to jump in. He kicked the larger creature, causing it to slide back and picked the other creatures up before running with them

The larger creature began chasing him, so Naruto turned a corner and ducked into a hiding spot before holding his breath. The larger creature passed by him and he sighed in relief as the two smaller creatures looked at him

"y-you saved us." The purple one said as Naruto smiled "of course I did. I can't stand seeing people pick on others for no reason. Both creatures smiled at him as he continued "I'm Naruto... who are you guys?" The purple creature jumped up "I'm Dorumon, one of the coolest digimon ever. This is my good buddy Ryudamon!" he gave a grin as Ryudamon bowed "Thank you for saving us Naruto-Dono" Naruto chuckled and scratched his cheek "please just call me Naruto... so you guys are digimon?" Dorumon nodded "yup. We kinda got lost from home and don't really know where we are" He scratched his head nervously as Ryudamon lowered his head in shame. "wait... home? Digimon have homes?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow. Ryudamon nodded "indeed Naruto-Dono. All digimon come from a different world called the digital world. It's quite a beautiful place" before Naruto could ask anymore questions the large creature from before spots them and charges at them.

Naruto quickly grabbed Dorumon and Ryudamon and jumped out the way. Dorumon spoke up "that's Chrysalimon. He attacked us while we were walking through this place" Naruto nodded and was about to begin running again until Dorumon and Ryudamon jumped off of him "Run Naruto-Dono. At least save yourself. **Iaijin!"** Ryudamon shouted as he fired a blade of iron from his mouth. **"Metal cannon"** Dorumon fired a ball of iron from his mouth at the same time, both attacks hitting Chrysalimon at the same time, knocking him back. However he got back up and screeched before shooting his tentacles towards the two digimon.

Both digimon were surprised as Naruto grabbed them and jumped out the way of the attack "Naruto?! What the heck are you doing?! Run before he kills you!" Dorumon shouted at him. Naruto's response was a foxy grin "no way. I'm no letting a creep like that hurt my friends!" both Dorumon and Ryudamon gasped, clearly touched by this, as Chrysalimon readied another attack... only to be smacked away by a large grey hand. Naruto and the two digimon looked and saw a boy around Naruto's age with white hair wearing a white jacket. Behind him was a large mechanical dinosaur digimon with two cannons on his back. "fighting a champion with two rookies? A little absurd" the boy said as he handed two capsules to naruto. "give this to your digimon. It'll heal them" Naruto nodded and gave the digimon the capsules, causing their wounds to disappears. "thanks Naruto/Naruto-Dono!" the two digimon cheered as Naruto's digivice beeped. He looked at it and saw two notication which read "partner: Dorumon/Ryudamon".

Naruto widened his eyes ad he looked at the two rookies who just grinned at him "let's kick his ass partner!" Dorumon shouted with a grin similar to Narutos. Ryudamon nodded as did Naruto. The two rookies stood in front of Naruto and got into battle stances before attacking **"Iaijin/Metal Cannon!"** the two fired the same attacks as before and hit Chrysalimon, making it grunt in pain until the white haired boy shouted "Mugendramon. Attack!" the now identified Mugendramon grunted and fired the cannon from his back and consumes Chrysalimon, turning him into data. Naruto and his digimon stared in awe at the raw power Mugendramon held. It took the white haired boy clearing his throat to snap then out of it "It's very rare to obtain a Digimon without scanning it through Digimon Capture, and yet here you are with two of them. What's more," he pensively brought his hand up to his mouth, "for programs to like a person…" The Digimon smiled up at Naruto, causing the veteran hacker to shake his head. "Everything about this is odd. You'll probably be an 'irregular' element among hackers."

"Irregular?" Naruto blinked at that.

"Anyway, you are free from your shell now," the boy proudly told him. "The rest is up to you. I shall take my leave."

As he turned, Naruto called out to the odd boy. "Wait! I'm looking for my friend who came this way! He's a bit older than me and has a pretty mean gaze."

"A young man with a nasty look in his eyes?" the boy paused. "Ah, the other 'irregular' one. Him?" Naruto nodded and the boy pointed towards the path leading deeper into Cron. "He was headed to that area over there."

Naruto craned his neck to get a better look of how deep the area was and frowned. "Do you know what's over there?"

"That used to be the old EDEN entrance area," the boy answered. "The remains of EDEN's creation. Its forgotten dregs. Proof of that lies in the fact that an original logout zone remains there, untouched. It's lock-protected and can't be used, but a hacker could probably deal with said lock."

"I see…" Naruto crossed his arms as a thought came to him. _For a hacker, he sure knows a lot about EDEN…_

"Yes, if you wanted to leave this place, it would be a good idea to use that logout zone. That boy should be able to unlock it in a snap," the grey-eyed boy hid his smirk, "as long as his skills haven't waned, that is."

"You mean… Arata?" Naruto blinked. _I know Arata is good at programming and stuff, but… is he a hacker too?_

"Why are you surprised?" the boy asked with a slight frown. "Don't tell me… He hasn't told you?" Naruto shook his head. "In that case, it's not my story to tell," the boy stated. "It's better to hear it directly from him."

"I guess…" Naruto frowned as the other boy turned away again. "Hold on. One more thing…" The boy didn't move as he waited for Naruto to continue. "I didn't catch your name."

"That's right. I haven't introduced myself." He turned around to directly face the new hacker. "I am Yuugo," he nodded to Naruto. "Yuugo of Team Zaxon. If you want to become a top-tier hacker, then you should seek us out. Our doors are always open." With that, he finally left.

Naruto closed his eyes to take the time to digest all of the information he just learned. _Yuugo… of Team Zaxon? Is that a hacking team? He's not a bad guy since he wants to protect EDEN, but he sure knows a lot about the network... Just who is he really?_ He opened his eyes and sighed to himself. "Well, no sense thinking up conspiracy theories. Anyway, Arata was headed to that area over there. Yuugo also mentioned that there's supposed to be an old logout zone there." He smiled down at his Digimon before remembering something else. "We might be able to log out so I should go get Nokia." Dorumon spoke up "Nokia? What's that? Is it tasty?" Naruto shook his head "No. Nokia is a friend of mine. I need to check up on her" the two digimon nodded and followed Naruto

 **Elsewhere**

Nokia took a deep breath as she finally worked up enough nerve to go further into Cron. She looked around for a sign of Naruto or Arata but stopped when she didn't find anything. "Where did those two go? L-like, could hackers have maybe—" She jumped when she heard footsteps nearby. She slowly turned to face the direction the sound was coming from and distinctly heard two voices.

"Hurry! Hurry!" A small orange dinosaur ran across the digital field.

"Wait a moment!" Another strange creature with a horn and wearing a fur cape chased after him. They both spotted Nokia and quickly ducked behind a wall.

The dinosaur cautiously took a peak around the corner. "Quietly…" He let out a grunt when his friend pushed down on his head to get a look too.

Naruto retraced his steps through Cron carefully, but soon a scream caught his attention. Worried that Nokia was in danger, he quickly called out his Digimon and started running towards her. He paused though when he spotted her. The girl was being circled by two other Digimon and Naruto figured they were rather harmless, considering they didn't seem like they were going to attack. Still, he approached them cautiously with his Digimon out, just in case they were dangerous.

Nokia looked at the two creatures circling her and let out a few squeals. "W-w-what are you!?"

The orange dinosaur stopped running and looked up at her. "Umm… Who are you?"

Nokia was a bit taken aback when it spoke to her. "It… it can talk!?" She relaxed a bit and blinked at the creature. "It's so… cute!" She nervously began to introduce herself. "M-m-my name's Nokia. What're your names?"

"Me?" the dinosaur smiled. "My name is Agumon!"

The fur-wearing Digimon shyly hid behind his friend. "I… I'm Gabumon."

"Agumon and Gabumon?" Nokia giggled. "What weird names!"

"Hey, they're not weird!" Gabumon looked up at her.

"You're the one with the weird name!" Agumon nodded in agreement.

"As if! My name's not weird!" Nokia chuckled.

Agumon paused. "Huh?" He looked over towards Gabumon and saw that he noticed it too.

The girl blinked at the two Digimon. "Huh? What's wrong? Have my totes adorbs good looks stunned you speechless?"

"I can smell something," Agumon whispered. "Something… familiar."

"Wait, what?" Nokia frowned. "Me?"

"Yeah," Gabumon nodded. "Familiar and reassuring."

"Uh, what!?" the girl's face went red. "Come on, this is kind of embarrassing…" She put on a big smile. "Sorry! Guess my naturally alluring pheromones are working full-force today."

Agumon laughed. "See, you ARE weird!" He noticed a weird human with two Digimon accompanying him and tensed up.

Naruto waved at them. "Nokia! It's good to see you safe."

"Oh, Naruto!" Nokia brightened when he returned. "Where the heck have you been!?"

"Yikes!" Gabumon shook his head. "It's another scary person!"

"I'm sick of being chased around," Agumon complained. "Run!"

"Wait! Calm down!" Nokia called out to them. "This is a friend of mine!" The two Digimon didn't listen though and ran off. She let out a long sigh. "They're gone. Just what were those cute little critters?" She shook her head before facing Naruto. "But never mind that. Who are they?" she asked, pointing at the two digimon following him.

This made Naruto grin "they're my partners" Dorumon jumped up "Yo! Names Dorumon" Ryudamon then bowed "I am Ryudamon. It's a pleasure to meet you Nokia-Hime." Nokia jolted with a small blush "H-H-Hime?! Heh heh. Even digimon can see what a beautiful princess I am" Naruto and Dorumon sweatdropped at Nokia words

Nokia then looked at Naruto "Having cute critters like them around could be pretty okay. Maybe this Digimon Capture thing won't be so bad after all."

"Well, not all of them are cute. We were attacked by a pretty nasty one earlier," Naruto told her. "It'll be bad if Arata encounters one on his own so we'd better get going."

"What!?" Nokia stared at him in surprised. "There was a violent wild Digimon too!? Whatever it was sounds super-duper scary!" She worriedly looked over Naruto's shoulder. "Arata's in the area through there? I'll go with you. Let's go find him!" The two then ran off to find Arata.

After a while of wandering through Cron, Nokia stopped to think something over. "Something feels really strange. Like this all happened before when I was a kid. It's like I've met Arata before…" she told Naruto who was staring at her curiously.

"What do you mean?" he asked. "We've met a bunch of times before in the chat."

Nokia shook her head. "No, not like we had met yesterday in chat or anything like that."

"Are you sure?" Naruto crossed his arms. "We're in the chat room so much that we're pretty familiar with each other."

She blinked at that. "Huh? Like, maybe… Yeah, maybe…" she paused as she couldn't come up with the words to explain it. "Something's strange." She took a moment to think it over some more let out a shriek when her avatar began flickering again.

Naruto winced as she shrieked and looked at her and saw her eyes glazed over as if she was seeing something

"What…?" Nokia looked around after snapping out of it. "What was that? Did… Did you see it?"

"See what? You just started staring into space" he told her as Dorumon and Ryudamon nodded

"Are you kidding?! How could you not see it!?" Nokia whined. "Honestly! What is WITH this place!?" She quickly started off again. "Let's go! Arata should be up ahead, right?"

Naruto stayed behind for a little while longer to check the area once more. "Is this related… to that ghost boy?" He shook his head as now wasn't the time to be delving into such thoughts. He quickly followed after Nokia but felt a shiver run down his spine. He simply dismissed it though before catching up to the red-haired girl.

Arata frowned as he looked around the old terminal point. "What was that image just now? A child? I am SO weirded out." He shook his head to clear his thoughts. "Damn it. I wanna know what that was!" He placed a hand on his head. "Whoa… This really does not feel right." A voice behind him caught his attention and he checked to see who it was.

"Ah!" Nokia let out a sigh of relief. "There it is! There!" she pointed at the old terminal. She spotted Arata and frowned at him. "Hang on! You're running off by yourself!? You can't just think about yourself, you know!"

"Well, at least we're all safe," Naruto shrugged. The two of them approached Arata, but Naruto soon paused when his avatar flickered. He looked over towards his Digimon and noticed they were just as tense as he was. "Something's wrong…" he muttered as he looked around for anything remotely dangerous. He lifted his gaze when a bright light caught his attention.

He watched as the light grew into a nautilus shell pattern. From that light, a strange creature emerged from it and landed before them.

Naruto quickly pulled down his goggles to run a scan but he blinked when the Digimon Capture program was unresponsive. _Is that not a Digimon!?_

Behind him, he sensed Nokia beginning to tremble. "What… is this…?"

Arata seemed confused too. "What's that? Is that another Digimon?" His eyes widened though as a horrible thought came to him. "It can't be! The 'Black Monster of EDEN' people have been talking about? They say it devours your data." He called out to the two younger teens. "You guys, this way! Run! Whatever that thing is, it's a real menace, that's for sure! I'll break through the lock on this thing! Log out, then get away as fast as you can!" he urgently told them before pulling up a few monitors to begin his work.

Naruto clenched his fists as he took Arata's advice. He started towards the older boy, but noticed Nokia wasn't following him. He turned to look at her only to see her frozen in place due to fear. "Nokia!"

"Hey, I told you to run, didn't I?" Arata called out to her. "Go on, get out of there!"

Nokia's knees shook as she willed her legs to move, but she was still rooted in place. "Uh… Ha… Ha…"

"Hey!" Arata yelled as the strange creature was now slowly approaching her.

Nokia watched as the monster inched closer but she still couldn't find the strength to move. She flinched when the slimy beast reeled back to attack, but suddenly, two Digimon appeared in front of her. Nokia gasped when she noticed it was Agumon and Gabumon. "H-hey… It's you guys…"

"We'll protect you, Nokia!" Agumon declared.

"G-get out of here, Nokia!" Gabumon bravely tried to exclaim.

"Ah!?" Naruto looked down at his Digimon and they nodded to him. He quickly rushed forward to join the battle. "We can't lose!" he told his team as they took their positions beside Agumon and Gabumon.

 **"Baby Flame**!" the small dinosaur Digimon spit out a fireball as Gabumon quickly followed suit.

 **"Petit Fire!"**

" **Metal Cannon!"** Dorumon offered his support.

Ryudamon fired his blade **"Iaijin!"**

Naruto frowned as the attacks didn't do a thing. "Are we not strong enough…?" he muttered to himself. "Everyone! Forget about doing damage! Just make sure you don't get hurt!" His eyes widened when he saw the creature prepare an attack his Digivice labeled as Erode Device. "Look out!"

The creature sent out its tentacles towards all five Child Digimon, knocking them backwards. Gabumon groaned as he picked himself up off the group. "What should we do? It's too strong!"

"I…" Agumon frowned. "Why am I so weak? We have to help Nokia and the others!"

Naruto knelt down to help his Digimon up. "Everyone…" Naruto frowned to himself before looking up towards the locked gate. "Arata! Hurry!"

Arata finished inputting the string of codes necessary to activate the terminal. "Okay!" he called out. "The lock is taken care of. You can log out!" He frowned when Nokia still wasn't moving. "Come on, Nokia! Hurry!"

"But what about them!?" Nokia worriedly asked.

"Don't you get it? You're holding them back!" Arata scolded her. "They can't do anything until you get away!"

Nokia clenched her fists as she realized he was right. She looked over at Agumon and Gabumon. The two Digimon were pelting the monster with fire again but to no avail. She forced herself to turn away from them and ran towards the terminal to log out.

Once she was gone, Arata looked over to Naruto. "Naruto! Nokia's logged out! I'll go next! You hurry on after us, okay!?"

"Just get going!" Naruto called out before turning his attention to his team. "Everyone, we're leaving!" He recalled his Digimon back into his Digivice and pushed his goggles back up before looking over towards Agumon and Gabumon. "You two…!"

"Just run!" Agumon called out.

"We'll be fine!" Gabumon reassured him.

A part of Naruto didn't want to leave them behind, it took the shouting of Dorumon and Ryudamon from his digivice to get him to reconsider. "Alright!" He nodded and started for the terminal. He didn't dare look back at the battle or else he'd be tempted to rejoin it, but from the sounds of things, it wasn't going well.

"Ah! Agumon!" Gabumon cried out as his friend was knocked aside. He brought up his arms to guard against any incoming attacks now that he was alone, but to his surprise, the creature ignored him. His eyes widened as he realized where it was going. "No, wait!"

Naruto felt a chilling presence behind him and it caused him to lose his footing, still he remained steady. He thought he felt something brush past his foot and that moment of panic resulted in him tripping towards the terminal. He desperately reached out towards the access point but his vision flickered into static once more.

Within him, he heard the voices of children. "Find us…" they begged him as the world faded to black.

Naruto didn't know whether he had made it to the terminal or whether the monster had got him. All he knew was that his Digivice was giving him an extremely concerning message but that had to mean he was still alive in one form or another.

— _Warning_

 _An unexpected error occurred during the logout process for Uzumaki Naruto—_

 _The logout process cannot continue…_

 _The logout process cannot continue…_

 _The logout process cannot continue…_

… _The logout process will continue._

 _Logout successful. See you at your next login. Thank you. EDEN is a human network connecting the world to the future, run by Kamishiro Enterprise._

 **Real world**

Naruto took in deep breaths to calm his heart rate. He kept his eyes closed so he could reorganize his thoughts without visual distractions. Still, the noise around him didn't really help because cars were honking incessantly around him. _I'm alive…_ he thought. _But where…?_ The boy slowly opened his eyes and blinked when he noticed something strange about his hands. _H-huh…!? It's not just my hands… My entire body…!_ He stared at the light blue mass that made up his being. _W-what's going on…!?_

Around him, the cars were getting even noisier and he sensed that he was drawing a crowd since he was keeled over in the middle of the street with such a weird appearance. He decided to ignore them though as he tried to make sense of what was going on with his body.

"Um, excuse me… Isn't that dangerous?" a woman nearby ask.

"What's up with that kid?" a man mumbled. "Yikes…"

Soon a shrill voice cut through the air. "You there! What's with making such a scene in broad daylight? You want me to arrest you? Do you!?"

"Um, officer!" a passerby kid called out. "Over here!"

A woman wearing an officer's uniform snapped at the boy. "Who you calling a police officer? I'm a detective! Don't judge a book by its cover! I'll arrest you!" She tensed up when she noticed Naruto's form on the ground. "Huh? What the…?" the woman stared at the boy with wide eyes. "What is that!? What's going on? Urgh, that's gross! So gross I'm gonna arrest you! Right here on the spot!"

Naruto remained still though as he continued taking deep, heavy breaths. In the distance, he made out a car speeding through the streets. Momentarily pulled out of his jumbled thoughts, he quickly focused on the sound to figure out where it was coming from. He tensed up when he realized the car was behind him, but he knew he wouldn't have time to react to it judging by how fast it was moving. He flinched though as a gleaming black sports car with gold accents swerved around him before it came to a screeching halt in front of him.

The boy blinked when the right car door opened for him, revealing a woman with long blonde hair, a pink lens sunglass-style Digivice, and a long black scarf with thin gold lines running through its length. The lady chuckled as she studied Naruto. "You have an interesting appearance… I'm very curious. Handle it! Before it gets worse!"

It seemed as though she were offering him a ride and seeing as his only other alternative was being arrested for no reason, Naruto quickly entered the vehicle, never mind the consequences. He pulled the door close behind him despite the detective woman's protests in the streets.

"Stop that car! I'll arrest you! Wait!" the woman screamed as the car sped off.

Naruto let out a sigh of relief but he couldn't fully relax yet. He looked over at the strange blonde woman with a frown, slightly grateful that his appearance made it difficult for any sort of expression to be discernible on his face. _Just what did I get myself into?_ He studied the sports car for a while before making it out to be an imported Alfa Romeo Montreal. _Well… this sure is fancy… but for some reason... I feel strangely at ease..._

The woman curiously eyed him as she drove. "I'm more used to strange phenomena than most… but I've never seen the likes of this before," she mused. "Can you hear my voice? Are you able to speak?"

"Yeah, I can hear you…" Naruto blinked in surprise. "Huh… I can… talk…" He raised his right hand up to examine it. He opened and closed it a few times before deciding that he really was still in control of his strange body. It felt extremely different though. _It's super light… like how it was in EDEN…_

"That's good," the mysterious woman said, pulling him out of his reverie. "I wasn't sure what I was going do if you weren't human."

"Ah… would I still be considered human like this?" he humorously asked. "How did I even get this way?"

"I see," the woman smirked. "So you have no idea what it is that happened to you."

"Pretty much," Naruto nodded.

"If you have questions, ask them now," she told him. "I'll answer whatever I can."

Naruto's mind immediately went to Nokia and Arata. "My friends! Where have they gone!? We logged out from the same terminal in EDEN…"

"No," the woman shook her head. "There wasn't anyone else around. Just you. You're wondering whether the same thing might've happened to your friends?"

"Well, of course," Naruto sighed. He felt rather relieved since if Nokia and Arata weren't around, there was probably a high chance that they didn't end up with whatever condition he had.

The lady must have sensed his thoughts because she shook her head at him again. "I see… I can't tell you to not worry about them, but your first priority should be taking care of yourself."

"Then, do you know what's happened to my body?"

"It looks like your body is in an extreme digital state, as if it were a cyberspace avatar, yet somehow here in the real world."

"Ah…" Naruto nodded in understanding. "That makes sense since it feels just like when I was in EDEN."

"If that's true, then this is a very interesting phenomenon," the woman mused as she made a sharp turn.

Naruto glanced out the window and frowned as he couldn't recognize what street he was on. "Um… where are we exactly?"

"Shinjuku," she simply replied. "I was out working, looking for something, when I came across you here."

"Really…?" Somehow, Naruto found it very unlikely.

"You might not believe that, but it's the truth," the woman shrugged. "I'm headed to my agency's office in Nakano. You can tell me the details when we get there."

"Agency?" the boy brought his hand up to his mouth and closed his eyes. He opened them again when he had one last, very important question to ask. "Who are you?"

"Who am I?" the woman blinked at him before she realized something too. "Ah, I haven't introduced myself yet. I should have done that earlier, but you were such a curiosity it completely slipped my mind. Sorry," she said with a small smirk.

"Better late than never," Naruto shrugged. "But I guess it's rude to ask someone to introduce themselves without introducing yourself first. I'm Uzumaki Naruto."

"Well, Naruto, I'm Kuremi Kyoko," the woman told him in response. "I'm just a humble detective."

"A detective, huh?" Naruto crookedly grinned. This started like the beginning of a wild adventure

 **Hi everyone. For those who wanted the next chapter of my DxD kamen rider story I'm waiting for build to finish so I can make a basis... which admittidly is what I should have done before starting the story. Anyway I hope you like this story. I'll admit I am a massive digimon fan. I always like it way more than pokemon. My only problem with the franchise is the handling of X evolution as it's my favourite movie and the debut of my favourite digimon. Anyway see ya soon Darkness is off after this long story start**


	2. Welcome to the Kuremi Detective Agency

Naruto was surprised when Kyoko led him into Nakano Broadway. She had said her agency was in Nakano, but he didn't expect it to be in the popular shopping complex. Still, it made sense that the Kuremi Detective Agency was located in a remote corner of the first floor. He slowly took in the messy office as he sat on one of the sofas Kyoko pointed out to him. At her prompting, Naruto began to explain the entire ordeal his first time in EDEN turned out to be.

When he finished, Kyoko crossed her arms as she considered the teen's situation. "I see. You've got a good grasp on the situation."

Naruto frowned at that. "Well, it's good enough, I suppose… I only told you all the details I thought were important."

She smirked at him. "That place in Shinjuku where you appeared," she pondered. "It's the same, or very similar, to the place you logged in to EDEN at, isn't it?"

"Uh…" the digital entity shook his head. "Not really… The login point I used was nowhere near Shinjuku."

"Hmm…" Kyoko rested her chin in her hand. "Well, you're here talking to me now, but it seems there's another body out there for you as well."

"Eh!?" Naruto blinked at that. "A-another body…?" He brought a hand up to his forehead in disbelief. "I guess that's plausible… Even more jarring is the fact that a few days passed while I was in the middle of logging out… Could that have anything to do with my current situation?"

"Maybe your mental data was separated from your physical body and manifested in the real world independently?" Kyoko proposed as another theory came to mind. "Or maybe your body was somehow moved to Shinjuku where it was corrupted into the form you have now." She shook her head as there was no way to tell. "The whole situation is entirely too peculiar. Yet here you are, standing before me, as much as that shouldn't make sense. At present, I can only form a simple hypothesis. We need to gather more information, and quickly."

"Alright," the teen agreed. "So what should we do?"

"Going by the book, you should check out where you logged in to EDEN…" Kyoko nodded. "Which was where?"

Naruto brought a hand to where his mouth should be as he wondered why the detective was helping him. "This isn't some part of some wicked scheme, is it?" he asked. His tone had been light enough to be taken for a joke, but still serious enough to convey his suspicions to the blonde detective.

"Come now," the woman gave him a slight frown. "You don't trust me? You are at the Kuremi Detective Agency, which has solved a number of rather bizarre cases, including cyber crimes," she told him with a smile. "I can think of nobody better suited to solving the mystery of what happened to you. And you're even sitting on the sofa for clients," she pointed out.

Naruto knit his eyebrows together and looked down at his seat. "Ah… I see…" _Well, she has me there._ "But even if I ask that you solve this case, I don't think I can cover the fees," he shook his head.

"No need to worry about compensation," Kyoko reassured him. "Your very existence is all the payment I need."

"My existence…?" The teen nervously chuckled at that. "So… like an indentured servant working off his debt?"

The blonde woman smirked at his comment. "Let's pretend you've boarded a luxury liner. Say, the Mary Celeste."

"Ah…" Naruto sheepishly scratched his head. "I meant for that to be only a joke… And I wouldn't really call a mysteriously abandoned merchant brigantine a luxury liner..."

Kyoko shook her head. "Anyway, let's get back on track here. Where did you log in? But first…" she frowned at his form. "Before we do anything else, we must do something about your appearance. You can't walk around outside like that. And it looks pretty unstable, as well."

"Y-yeah…" Naruto sighed as he could actually see through his translucent hand. "I don't want to get arrested just for looking like this," he muttered, remembering the detective cop from before.

"I've had a good look," Kyoko crossed her arms and smugly smirked, "and you are truly a mass of data: a true digital body. Yet you hear my voice, sit on my sofa, and can talk to me. Proof that you obey physical laws." She pensively brought her hand up to chin. "A digital body with real-world characteristics. Let's call it a 'half-cyber body'," she chuckled.

"Half-cyber…" the teen absently repeated. "Oh, if that's the case, it should be made of programmable data."

Kyoko nodded as he was quick to catch on. "If your body is comprised of data, then it could be easy to do something about your appearance. Incorporate compatible data and make repairs. You should have the same basic structure as an avatar used within EDEN. It would be excellent if there were avatar parts in the data found lying around Cron."

"There should if Cron is the remnants of EDEN's prototype," Naruto stated, remembering what Yuugo had told him earlier. "Why don't I check it out?"

"The only issue is whether or not you can login in your current state."

"Ah… Good point," Naruto paused to think things further before something flashing caught his eye. _Huh…? The TV?_ Without another thought, he got up from his seat and approached the device.

"What is it?" Kyoko curiously watched him. "Did something happen with the television?"

"I'm not sure…" He intently stared at the wide screen before a strange voice called out to him.

 _"Over here. Jump."_

"Huh!?" Naruto blinked as it wasn't a voice he recognized, but for some reason, it pulled at him. "Jump!? I couldn't possibly—!" He quickly shook his head to clear it of doubt. _I might as well try!_ He held out his right hand towards the screen and watched as a portal opened up from the television, pulling him into it.

It was a similar sensation as to when he logged onto EDEN and when he was on the other side, he stared at the strange new network he appeared in. It looked like a road of sorts and he found that he was floating through the data stream. "What the heck happened?" He decided to take the chance and see if he could travel down the road-like system. "It looks like I can go forward after all," he smiled as he began gliding through the digital space.

At the end of the digital road, Naruto was surprised to find himself in a bright area. He turned around to check if he could go backwards, but the path disappeared. "The exit? It's gone. Guess I can't go back the way I came." Seeing as he could only go forward, Naruto took a moment to gather his bearings. "Is this… EDEN?" He paused when his Digivice began ringing so he promptly answered. "Hello? Uzumaki Naruto speaking."

"This is Kuremi Kyoko," the caller replied. "Can you hear me?"

"Yeah," the teen nodded. "I hear you."

"I nearly lost you, but I managed to get a trace," Kyoko nodded to him. "What the heck happened? It looked like you were sucked into the terminal and just disappeared."

The boy nervously chuckled. "Sorry… but I heard a voice telling me to 'jump' and so I did… into the TV…" He studied his surroundings and frowned. "I ended up here in EDEN somehow."

"I see," Kyoko pensively mulled this over. "I'm guessing you passed through the actual network lines themselves. The office terminal is connected to EDEN's network. You rode the flow within the wires as data and appeared in EDEN," she surmised. "So then for you, the network appears as an actual series of roads."

"That's one way to describe it," Naruto nodded.

"Still, it's shocking to see you make such a direct transition from the real world to the digital one," Kyoko stated. "To submerge in the digital world just by touching the terminal. A dive… no, a jump!" She gave the teen a smirk. "From now on I'm going to call that ability yours a 'Connect Jump'. What a happy little unexpected accident! Now you can go look around for avatar part data. Head to Cron," she instructed him. "There's plenty of junk data lying around there. It should be easy to find what you need."

"Understood," Naruto nodded before cutting the call.

He started for the terminal access point but paused when that strange voice from before spoke to him again. _"This way. Come on."_

The boy frowned suspiciously but decided to take another risk. "I guess I should go in the direction of that voice."

Naruto blinked when the terminal took him to another strange place. It looked like a lab of some sort and there was no one else here except for a woman with short purple hair and glasses. She seemed pleased that Naruto finally arrived and greeted him with a nod. "Ah, so you can hear my voice. Welcome to the DigiLab. This place has a faint connection with the Digital World. A paradise for Digimon." She flashed him a smirk and brought her left hand up to push her glasses back. "I am Mikagura Mirei. I open this paradise unto you!"

"Huh…?" Naruto frowned as none of that made any sense. "Digi…Lab?"

"The Digital Monster Laboratory," she nodded. "You could it the 'DML' for short, I suppose. I recommend calling it the 'DigiLab', though."

"O-okay…" Naruto crossed his arms as that didn't explain anything. He blinked when he realized she said something odd. "Digital World?" the hacker tilted his head to the side. "What's that?"

"It's okay if you don't know about it," Mirei told him. "For now, at least. When the time comes, I expect you will know what you need to know."

"I… suppose…" Naruto frowned. "So why am I here?"

"I called you…" she replied. After a while she shook her head. "No, that's not quite it. It was you who called to me."

"Me…?"

She nodded to the confused teen. "You are beginning to develop a deep connection with Digimon," she stated as she stared at hin. "Our strings of fate intertwined and drew me in, and so I found you. In other words, it was you who called out to me. But that's enough of that for now."

"I still don't get it, but…" Naruto shook his head. "Okay… I'll go along with it for now." He scanned the room once more. "DigiLab, huh…?"

Satisfied with his open-mindedness, she motioned towards the various monitors. "First off, what kind of place is this? Go and check it out with your own eyes."

"Alright," the curious teen nodded before taking his time to check each facility with Mirei. It didn't take long before he got the basics down. Mirei walked him to the terminal and he quickly thanked her for the tour.

"Do you understand the DigiLab?" she asked him with a smirk. "Use it carefully to further your interactions with Digimon. Let me see if you're the person I thought you might be."

"Huh…?" Naruto knit his eyebrows together in confusion, but Mirei quickly shook her head at him. "Hand me your digivice" Naruto did as he was told as she examined it. "you're digivice was damaged... your partners were trapped" she fiddled withe digivice and there was a flash of light. When the light died down Dorumon and Ryudamon were standing in front of Naruto. The two digimon shook their heads to gain their bearings and jumped back slightly at strange, human shaped clump of data, standing in front of them.

"Dorumon! Ryudamon! I'm so glad you two are alright!" the two digimon eyes widened at the voice "Naruto/Naruto-Dono!" the two shouted and tackled him to the ground. Naruto laughed and hugged the two "Naruto-Dono... what happened to you?" Ryudamon asked as the hug ended "it's hard to explain... simply I've become half data" Mirei sweatdropped at his explanation "I think that's putting it too simply" Dorumon and Ryudamon lowered their heads "We're sorry Naruto... if we were stronger you wouldn't have ended up like that" Ryudamon nodded at this as Naruto pats the two on the head "don't worry I don't blame you two. You did your best and I'm proud of you guys. We just have to get stronger so we can kick that monsters ass" this seemed to cheer up the digimon as they cheered and Mirei cleared her throat

"Finally, one last thing," she pushed up her glasses. "A small token for you."

Naruto flinched as his body glowed. He stared at his hands to see if anything had changed, but nothing really stood out except a new message from his Digivice. _"You got a Hacking Skill."_

"Hacking…?" Naruto took a moment to take it all in. "So I really am a hacker now…"

"Hacking skills shine in combination with Digimon use," Mirei explained to him, "but are dangerous if used for unscrupulous hacking purposes. How you use your skills is up to you. Never forget that."

"That sounds like what Yuugo told me before," Naruto crossed his arms. "But… there's not really any goal I have in mind with these skills," he admitted.

"You can deepen your special ties with the Digimon," she suggested to him. "Live with them. Share their joys and sadness, and grow together! By deepening your bond with the Digimon, they'll surely offer you their aid. It is a very important ability. It will even change your life."

"My… life…?" Naruto looked down at his strange form.

"Connect Jump…" Mirei curiously studied the boy's half-cyber body. "That's what you call your curious skill. I know nothing of this power," she shook her head at him. "It's like a hacking skill, but… well, different. But I'm certain it's a skill that will serve you in unique ways. I'll see you later," she told him. "Take care."

"Alright," Naruto nodded to his team. "We're going!"

"You were heading to Cron, I suspect?" Mirei guessed. "Just this once, I'll let you use the special exit." She returned to her seat and pulled up a terminal. As she typed in a few codes, she smiled at Naruto. "Next time, go to the access point, if you please."

Naruto stared at the firewall that had prevented him from leaving Cron before. To test out his new abilities, he looked at the Digimon following him. "Ready?" he asked them. The boy held out his right hand to the firewall and attempted to hack past it. The blockade lit up and unlocked itself before disappearing. Alright! Let's keep going!" Naruto smirked as he entered Galacta Park. He paused when he received another call. "Hello? Uzumaki Naruto speaking," he answered.

"It's me," Kyoko greeted him. "Whew, I finally got through to you. I lost your trace info and had to search again," she explained. "Where did you wander off to this time?"

"Ah… I made a stop at the DigiLab…" Naruto answered. "Something about me calling out to someone named Mikagura Mirei? She told me a few things about how to raise my Digimon, and fixed my digivice so I could talk to my partners" as they were talking Dorumon and Ryudamon faces popped up on the screen "Naruto! Who's this pretty woman?" Dorumon asked, causing Kyoko to chuckle "I'm Kuremi Kyoko. Just a humble detective" Ryudamon then spoke up "Nice to meet you Kyoko-Hime" Kyoko chuckled again "Hi me? What a bunch of little flirts your digimon are" This made Naruto chuckle "Yeah. I have to thank Mirei for fixing my digivice"

"I see," Kyoko brought her hand up to her mouth. "So you ran into Mikagura Mirei."

"Huh? Do you know her, Kyoko-san?"

"Yeah, you could say we're acquainted." Kyoko hid her smirk. "Regardless, for there to have been a natural progression where you would meet her…" She chuckled at Naruto. "You seem to have the craziest luck."

"Luck, coincidence, fate…" Naruto shrugged. "It doesn't change my current situation," he sighed.

Kyoko nodded to him as she returned to the task at hand. "Let's assume you carried out your original objective. We'll start by…" She blinked as she noticed the firewall in Cron was gone. "What? You've already broken through the firewall?" She smirked at his innate hacking skill. "Well done! You saved me some time," she chuckled. "All right, on to our next move. I scanned the area around the entrance to Cron and marked key junk data sites."

"Junk data?" Naruto asked as he was about to slip on his goggles to scan around him. He didn't though as he noticed the information his Digivice was collecting was directly being relayed to him through his senses. He could actually see for himself the markers Kyoko laid out for him.

"Junk data will serve as your body parts," the detective told him. "You need to go find and retrieve some. It's something of a stopgap measure, and it may not be a perfect solution, but I'm sure your skills are up to the task. This is a key step to returning your body to normal, so buck up and get to work!" she directed him.

"I see you're already taking to being my 'boss' already, Kyoko-san, even though I have yet to agree to work for you," Naruto chuckled. He paused as a thought came to him. "Hey, wait a moment! I'm the client in this case! Why am I doing the field work for you? You're the detective here! Shouldn't you be the one searching for my body parts?"

"It's okay," she shrugged. "Searching for body parts isn't as hard as defeating 48 demons, now, is it?"

"That's… not what I meant…"

"Think of it as an emergency measure," Kyoko dismissed his concerns. "I look forward to meeting you in your normal body." With that, she cut the call, much to Naruto's dismay.

"She's… not quite what I imagined a detective to be," he smiled to himself.

" **Metal cannon!"** Dorumon fired his signature metal ball taking care of the remaining Digimon guarding the junk data.

Naruto quickly loaded the data into his Digivice and signaled his Digimon that they were done. "Alright! I'm loading the parts now!" With a flash, his avatar stopped flickering and his regular appearance returned. "Success!" he gave his Digimon a thumb up. "Yay! Naruto's back!" the two digimon circled around him while cheering

As if on cue, Kyoko called him to check his progress. "Hmm… You at least look normal again," she mused. "It's not a perfect solution, but it's a big step."

"Of course!" Naruto nodded. "I have my body back!" He paused and crookedly chuckled. "Sort of…"

"The objective has been met," Kyoko nodded to him. "Come back to the agency."

"Understood." He turned around to exit Cron, but stopped. "Um… How do I…?"

The woman raised an eyebrow at him. "What's that? You don't know how to get back?" She brought a hand up to her mouth. "Hmm… Try logging out as you would normally. Since you went in through an agency terminal, my guess is that you should come out through one. But to be honest, in your case, I don't know what'll happen until we try."

"I suppose…" Naruto shrugged.

"In the worse case, if your data gets scattered throughout the network, I'll salvage as much as I can." The look of surprise on Naruto's face made Kyoko chuckle. "I'm joking! Sort of."

"That's not funny!" Naruto wailed in horror. "But anyways, I'm heading back now." He cut the call and massaged the back of his neck. "Well, Kyoko-san doesn't _seem_ like a bad person… A bit roundabout and difficult to figure out maybe, but she's genuinely interested in my situation." He stared at the back of his gloved hand. "Actually… I feel the same way… Maybe it wouldn't hurt to stick around…" He started to leave but paused to take a look at the locked terminal he had used before.

The Blonde boy frowned when he noticed it was once again deactivated. Whatever Arata did back then must have only been temporary but at least it worked. Naruto checked the area once more for any sign of the monster or those other two Digimon. He crossed his arms when nothing turned up before deciding it was best to leave things be.

Naruto blinked as he found himself back at the agency. "I'm home!" he jokingly greeted Kyoko.

"Welcome back," the woman chuckled back at him. "You made it back in one piece, didn't you? I wouldn't have expected anything different."

"So you really were joking back then," Naruto sheepishly smiled. "At least nothing bad came from these little tests of ours…"

She smirked back at him before she became serious again. "Still, those abilities border on the unreal. Maybe the reason you still adhere to physical laws has to do with an instinctual fear present in all physical organisms." She laughed to herself at such a deeply rooted psychological phenomenon. "This is all truly fascinating!"

"Pardon me, Kyo-chan," a voice interrupted her from her thoughts.

Kyoko frowned before spinning her chair to face the middle-aged man Naruto and she failed to notice earlier. "There you go again, sneaking up on me, old man."

"Oops, sorry," the man smirked at her. "I did it again."

"And could you stop calling me Kyo-chan?" the woman crossed her arms. "It's embarrassing. That was a childhood nickname."

"Not going to happen," the man shook his head. "Kyo-chan will always be Kyo-chan to me." He began laughing. "No matter how old you get or how brilliant of a detective you become!"

"How long have you been there?" Kyoko asked him. "And what did you hear?" Her eyes wandered over towards Naruto in concern.

"I just got here," he crossed his arms. "Is something wrong?" He looked over at the red-haired boy standing in front of her desk. "Oh, you have a client. Sorry, sorry! Were you going over a case?"

"No, this is—" Kyoko paused as she didn't know whether to call the boy a client or her prospective yet reluctant employee, "well, a client of sorts, though of a somewhat unconventional nature."

"Oh?" This piqued the man's interest in the teen. "Just who are you, then?" he asked the young man.

Naruto smiled at the sketchy old man and politely introduced himself. "Uzumaki Naruto," he shook the man's hand. "As for my role here? Uh…" His blue eyes nervously darted towards Kyoko. "That's a secret," he crookedly grinned. His answer must have amused Kyoko because she raised an eyebrow at him as she too smirked at their guest.

The man narrowed his eyes on the detective and the boy. _He's a lot like Kyo-chan back when she was his age…_ he thought as he crossed his arms.

Kyoko brushed her hair to the side as she guessed what the old man was thinking. "Hmph. Like I said, no one in particular. Not yet."

"Not yet, huh?" Naruto sheepishly chuckled before blinking at the shady-looking man. "Um… and you are?"

"Let me introduce you," Kyoko nodded. "This is Detective Matayoshi Gorou. He's an old friend from when my father ran the agency and I trust him completely. He's the most elite detective the force has on cyber crime."

"Eh? A detective from the police department?" Naruto blinked at the man in surprise.

Matayoshi nodded at him. "Looks are deceiving, you were thinking?" He shrugged at the young boy. "Well, I suppose I don't exactly fit the mold. But if I did, I'd never be able to tag along with the shadier element. Oops!" he grinned. "A slip the tongue!" he laughed.

"So, is there something afoot?" Kyoko asked him. "If it's a case, sit on the sofa and wait a bit." She stood from her desk with a smile on her face. "I'll just whip up some tasty coffee…" she offered.

Matayoshi immediately shook his head. "No, thank you!" he declined. Naruto blinked as he thought he caught a hint of fear in the man's voice. "There's no case today! No need for coffee!" He crossed his arms as a sly smile appeared on his face. "I heard a rumor about EDEN Syndrome. I thought you might be interested, Kyo-chan."

This seemed to have caught her attention and the detective seriously nodded at the old man. "Let's hear it, then."

Naruto watched as Matayoshi took a seat in the client's sofa and Kyoko sat on the sofa opposite of him. The teen felt a bit out of place but quickly stood off the side, facing Matayoshi. This made the older detective stare at him with a scrutinizing gaze. The Blonde boy blinked at him while doing his best to not crack under the pressure he suddenly felt crushing him. Finally, Matayoshi crossed his arms and cleared his throat.

Naruto nervously tilted his head to the side. "Is something the matter, Detective Matayoshi?"

Kyoko chuckled as she explained it to the older detective. "No need to worry about my assistant, old man. This is someone with a rather… special connection with EDEN." She proudly smirked at the teenager. "My assistant has the potential to become something of a specialist in the field." She turned her gaze back towards Matayoshi. "Let's hear what you have to say."

"I see," the veteran detective nodded to her. "If you can vouch for your assistant, that's fine." His expression darkened as he suddenly became very serious. "The rumor concerns the special ward in the hospital where they're isolating the EDEN Syndrome patients." He looked over towards Naruto when the boy blankly blinked at him. "Oh. Do I need to explain what EDEN Syndrome is to your future specialist?" he asked with a smirk.

"Please do," Kyoko nodded.

"It's a rare condition where EDEN users suddenly lose consciousness and are unable to wake up," he began. "We see more and more patients with each year, but the cause, symptoms, and treatment remain a mystery. There's a special ward at Central Hospital for EDEN patients. Treatment and a search for the cure are underway. But information there is kept heavily restricted. There are facilities even relatives can't enter."

"Eh…?" Naruto crossed his arms. "That's pretty shady…"

Matayoshi nodded in agreement. "The rumor is that they're concealing facts to help protect Kamishiro's image. This remains firmly in rumor territory for now. But lately, there have been happenings behind the scenes at Central Hospital."

"Behind the scenes?" Kyoko brought a hand up to her chin. "Meaning Kamishiro Enterprise, right?"

"Yes," the older detective nodded. "The hospital is under Kamishiro's control. The same Kamishiro running the EDEN Network. The number of patients is increasing and symptoms are getting worse. Now of all times is when Kamishiro needs to come clean, not remain silent. An alarming number of people are being admitted to the hospital in question and security in the special ward has allegedly been beefed up. This means something is afoot."

"It was going to happen eventually," Kyoko mused.

"Yes, indeed," Matayoshi nodded.

The information put the blonde detective into a good mood so she stood up. With a chuckle, she started for the backroom. "I think I'll put some coffee on after all! We can toast the agency's success!"

Matayoshi tensed up again. "Oh, look at the time," he said, pulled his cap down over his face. "I'd better get back to the station. Sorry, but let's save the toast for another time. See you later!" He quickly started for the exit, but pulled Naruto closer towards him before whispering a few words of advice to the young prospective detective's assistant so that he may live a long, healthy life. "I'd watch out for her coffee. Especially the color and the solid chunks floating in it. I fear the day is coming when I'll be forced to actually taste her coffee." He sighed. "That day won't be pretty…"

"Chunks…?" Naruto asked but the old man was already gone.

Kyoko didn't seem to notice their exchange as she returned to her desk, a bit disappointed Matayoshi left, but there was work to be done. "It was as he said," she stated to Naruto. "Fresh information on EDEN Syndrome is hard to come by. Kamishiro's behind-the-scenes restrictions are doing their job. And security will only get ramped up all the more from here on out."

Naruto moved from the entrance of the agency to the front of her desk. "Kyoko-san, is it okay for me to ask why you're looking into this?"

"There's something very strange happening in EDEN, then you show up in your weird body," she replied to him. "And at the same time, Kamishiro's apparently on the move. Is that all merely a coincidence?" Naruto closed his eyes to ponder his answer but Kyoko shook her head. "No, it has to all be connected," she answered herself. "The rationale is plain as day. No leaps in logic are necessary."

"You sound pretty confident in that conclusion…" Naruto noted with a slightly worried frown on his face as he opened his eyes.

Kyoko looked up a few things on her computer before rising to her feet again. "I'm heading to Central Hospital," she stated. "I need to get as much info as I can before security is stepped up. I'd be thrilled if you came with me," she seriously looked into Naruto's blue eyes.

"Eh!?" Naruto was surprised by her request. "Really!? But… I'm not really your assistant…"

"You might be able to get some info on your current state," she pointed out. "Seek and ye shall find! Knock and it shall be…" She paused for a moment and brought her hand to her chin. "No, in your case, let's go with 'Open Sesame'," she chuckled.

The blonde boy chuckled at that. "From the Bible to 'One Thousand and One Nights', huh? Well," he crossed his arms and grinned, "I can live with that."

The detective and her prospective assistant entered the hospital and looked around the lobby. Kyoko wore a small smile as she considered their plan of assault. "Well, what to do? At times like these, I tend to start off with a frontal attack." She nodded to the teen accompanying her. "Let's try direct negotiations to get us into the hospital's Special Ward."

"A frontal attack?" Naruto nervously asked, bringing his gloved hand to his mouth. "What does that entail exactly? It sounds dangerous..."

Kyoko chuckled at his reaction. "You're a sharp one! But preconceived notions can sometimes lead to unintended consequences," she told him. "Don't ask for details. They say that ignorance is bliss, after all."

"Sure, people say that, but it doesn't make it true," Naruto pointed out.

The detective shook her head at him. "I'll give you instructions later. Until then, gather info inside the hospital."

The Blonde boy blinked at her and frowned. "That's… it?"

"Asking questions is the most fundamental cornerstone in detective work!" she nodded before giving him an encouraging smile. "I wasn't joking when I said you could become a specialist in the field, my dear prospective assistant."

"I got that, but…" He shook his head as an uncertain frown appeared on his face.

Kyoko studied his serious expression before coming up with something to say to put him at ease. "Become a GP and record my activities in a chart or become a boy with shining red cheeks…" she offered him. "It's really a lot of fun," she chuckled.

"I have no idea what you mean," Naruto sighed as she walked away. "And of course all the legwork goes to me…" he sagged his shoulders. He quickly straightened up though as this _was_ his only way of repaying the detective for taking on his "case". _And what a complicated case it is…_ "At the very least, becoming a detective's assistant will be interesting. Despite the fact I know she's just using me, I'll stick with it for now…" Naruto turned away from the hospital entrance and scanned the lobby. "Where should I start?" he asked himself. His eyes skimmed over the reception desk before he spotted a nurse speaking with a girl his age with long black hair. He paused as something about her caught his attention. "Huh…?" Before he even realized it, his body was already walking towards her. He quickly stopped himself though when he was halfway across the lobby.

Naruto continued to stare at the girl and the nurse. He couldn't make out what the lady was saying to her, but the girl seemed a bit sad. A lot of different theories began forming in Naruto's mind, but he couldn't quite keep up with his own rapid thought process. Soon, the nurse finished speaking with the girl and the raven-haired teen watched the lady walk away. Naruto froze up when the girl spotted him staring at her.

The girl blankly stared back at him and Naruto wished he could figure out what it was she was thinking as they silently faced each other. It didn't seem as though she was going to be the first to break her gaze, so Naruto decided to make an attempt to lighten the mood.

He awkwardly smiled at her as he came up with the first line that popped into his head. "H-hey, girl. Have we met?"

Naruto let out a shaky laugh, but the girl didn't respond. She finally looked away from him when the elevator behind her dinged. Without giving the Blonde boy another glance, she entered the lift. Naruto watched as the doors closed behind her before frowning at what a mess that encounter was. "well that could have gone better" he heard Dorumon through his Digivice and even though he couldn't see him Naruto could tell the purple furball was smirking. "shut it" he said, which made Dorumon snicker, as he looked back towards where the black haired girl left

"I wonder why she looks so lonely…" he muttered to himself as he recalled how sad her eyes closed his eyes and shook his head when he remembered his current task. "I'd better get to work," he reminded himself. He opened his blue eyes before scanning the lobby again for a suitable place to start his investigation.

After running around the lobby and General Ward, Naruto took the elevator up to the Special Ward. As soon as he stepped out onto the thirteenth floor, he frowned. There was something different about this floor that made him wary so he carefully scanned the hallway before proceeding.

"There's no one here," he muttered to himself as he started walking. "Wait…" he paused when he spotted two guards standing in front of a key-gated door. Naruto nervously approached one of the men. "Excuse me! Is it possible for me to visit a patient here?"

"Anyone without permission is prohibited from entering this area!" the guard mechanically stated. "In other words, get out!"

"I see," Naruto frowned. "Sorry for disturbing you then," he bowed his head and backtracked into the hall to contact Kyoko. "Kyoko-san," he whispered.

"It's me," she replied.

"I'm on the thirteenth floor, but the guards won't let me pass."

"We can ride the elevator to the Special Ward floor but can't enter the rooms without permission," Kyoko frowned. "It goes without saying that we have no such permission."

"Then what do we do now?"Naruto asked.

"We take out the two guards and hack our way past the door, which is likely locked, to get into the room. This is what I call a frontal attack," Kyoko told him. She paused for a moment before shaking her head. "But it takes time to prepare, and the risks are high. Let's not rely on a frontal attack now. We'll trust in your abilities—our trump card."

"Trump card…?" Naruto had a vague idea of where this was heading.

"The terminal in the nurse's station should be connected to the hospital network," Kyoko notified him. "I don't have to spell it all out for you, do I?"

"A Connect Jump," he nodded. "I got it." He ended the call and started back down to the General Ward.

Naruto quickly answered his Digivice as soon as he successfully finished his Connect Jump. "I'm in, Kyoko-san."

"You managed to get there without incident!" Kyoko gave him a satisfactory smile and nod before chuckling. "Just as I expected it would go! Okay, let's move into action. Get the data from the room in the back while keeping an eye on the patients."

Naruto frowned at her. "Isn't this a crime?"

"That's for the authorities to decide, not us," Kyoko shrugged. "If it's against the law, then the law will try us. But until then, we're in a bit of a gray area. Detectives generally operate unchallenged when it comes to this sort of thing," the woman reassured him.

"Alright, I get it," the teen nodded. "I'll get the data now." He cut the transmission and continued forward but before he could reach the control room, one of the patients caught his eye. He rushed over to the window in front of the patient and the sight of who it was made his breathing hitch. "No way!" he choked out. Naruto pressed his half-cyber hands against the glass. "Is this… me?" He rested his forehead against the window next. "Is this my… physical body!?" The Blonde boy shook his head and closed his eyes. "This is shocking but… I wasn't expecting to see that my own body was in such good shape. I should be happy, I suppose," he said with a forced smile. He opened his eyes when he realized something. "But if I'm being kept in the isolation ward… then I really must have EDEN Syndrome," he sadly concluded as he forced himself to turn away from his physical body.

The detective's assistant approached the heavy doors leading to the command room and watched as they opened for him. He took a quick look around before spotting an active monitor. He hurried over to it and began accessing its files.

 _File 001: EDEN Syndrome_

 _A mysterious illness whereby people suddenly fall into comas while connected to the EDEN Network. Originally the term was given to the incessant vomiting and other symptoms common to those unused to spending time in the Digital World. But now, EDEN Syndrome is used to describe the more serious malady of inexplicable loss of consciousness while connected to the EDEN Network. After extended time in a coma, the body weakens, becoming more susceptible to complications. In the worst cases, this has led to death._

Naruto frowned as he moved onto the next file.

 _File 002: Treatments for EDEN Syndrome_

 _No effective treatment has been found for EDEN Syndrome. Research continues into treatments and causes of this unexplained illness._

The Blonde boy sighed, but continued delving further into the computer.

 _File 003: Association with Kamishiro Enterprise_

 _EDEN is a large-scale digital space operated by Kamishiro Enterprise. Deeply affiliated with governmental agencies, EDEN's business areas are expanding quickly. Immediate improvements and user training must be provided to warn users against long login times. Furthermore, the EDEN interface uses Kamishiro Enterprise's proprietary technology, making future research sharing problematic._

Satisfied with the information he just downloaded onto his Digivice, Naruto decided now was the best time to leave. He couldn't risk overstaying his welcome and there wasn't anything else of interest left on the computer. As he exited out of the command room though, he was shocked to see someone in the Special Ward.

 _Ah…! It's that girl from before!_ His body froze up when she stared back at him with an equally surprised expression on her face.

"Why are you here?" she asked him.

"Maybe I'm stalking you…?" Naruto weakly joked. He let out an uneasy chuckle as he peered over her shoulder towards the terminal he used to get into the Special Ward. He could hear his digimon groan from that joke

After dismissing his poor joke, the girl regained her composure and glared at him suspiciously. "This area is supposed to be off-limits, with guards watching over the only entrance. How did you get in here? Did you do something to the guards? Who even are you?"

"Well…" Naruto shifted his gaze away from her as he tried to come up with something to say. After a while he shook his head before he decided to ask questions of his own. "Who are you? Are you a relative of a patient? Are you with Kamishiro?"

"Don't answer a question with a question!" she frowned at him. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Perhaps she had been a bit too hasty with her interrogation so she quickly calmed herself down. "Answer me," she calmly told him as she opened her eyes.

Naruto relaxed his guard a bit, but he still knew it was best he didn't answer directly. "I'm just a plain old detective's assistant," he finally settled on saying.

She gasped in surprise and brought her hand up to her mouth. "Wait, is Kuremi…?"

The Blonde boy frowned at this. _She knows about the agency…_ He was prepared to raise his guard again, but to his surprise and relief, her brusque demeanor further lessened now that she assumed he was a part of the Kuremi Detective Agency.

"I see," the girl nodded. "Well, never mind, then."

"Never… mind?" Naruto knit his eyebrows together.

"You came to investigate EDEN Syndrome, right?" she asked him. Naruto curtly nodded in response. "Was there something you wanted to ask?"

"Eh!?" Naruto blinked at her in surprise. "Is this a trick or something?"

She shook her head. "I'll answer your questions." The girl saw that the boy was still reluctant to speak. "Don't get me wrong. I'm just trying to come clean in order to clear my own name here."

"Clear… your name…?" the Blonde boy finally relaxed. _Is her name Kamishiro?_

"I am in debt to Kamishiro," the girl further explained, "so if you have a few questions, I can answer them, I think."

"What should I ask?" Naruto muttered into his hand. His eyes wandered slightly and before he knew it, he was staring at his body again. _I suppose that's a good place to start… I need to know how much I can trust her._ He pointed to his physical body lying in the bed. "Who is that patient?"

The girl looked over to who it was he was pointing to and intently stared at the sleeping boy. "This patient here?" She tried to think back to if she had ever seen him there before. "They were just brought in. They weren't here a few days ago. Are you worried about them?" She blinked when there was something strange about the patient's appearance. "Eh?" She looked between Naruto and the patient. "You two look exactly alike! Do you have a twin perhaps?"

Naruto truthfully shook his head. "N-no…" he sadly replied with closed eyes. _That's about as much as I expected as a response._ He took a deep breath before returning his gaze on the girl.

She pensively stared at Naruto's physical body. "Hmm. I see. That's… quite the coincidental resemblance then."

"I guess…" Naruto wryly responded. "Next question… What happens if you contract EDEN Syndrome?"

"What happens?" the girl frowned as she looked around them. "Well, as you can see, patients with EDEN Syndrome all fall in a coma. I've heard of no other symptoms. Do you know someone who's shown others?"

Naruto stared at his own body before shaking his head. "Not really…" He cleared his throat before asking one last question. "Is there a cure for EDEN Syndrome?"

"I've never heard of anyone recovering from it," she replied. A sad expression washed over her face as her gaze lowered to the ground. "Someone I know has been stuck in a deep sleep… for a full either years now." Naruto noticed her left hand tighten into a fist. "I'm sure he'll be fine. Someday he's sure to wake up. For now, all I can do is wait."

 _Maybe I brought up something I shouldn't have…_ Naruto sadly thought to himself as he saw how sad she looked. He shook himself from those thoughts though. Now wasn't the time for him to be distracted by such things. "There are rumors that Kamishiro is involved in some kind of conspiracy…" he began.

The girl tensed up and glared at him. "That's a… misunderstanding! A mistake! Kamishiro wants to find a cure for EDEN Syndrome, too!" Naruto caught the hints of desperation leak into her voice. "That was why they built this special ward and have specialists working around the clock looking for a cure. It's ridiculous that anyone should suffer because of EDEN!" she frowned to herself. "I've… I've got to do something!"

Naruto blinked at how agitated she became. "S-sorry if I said things that upset you… But I think I unders—" he was interrupted when his Digivice began to ring. Sensing it was urgent, he quickly answered. "Uzumaki Naruto here."

"I apologize for interrupting such an important conversation," Kyoko told him, "but you have an uninvited guest." Her warning quickly prompted Naruto to look past the raven-haired girl.

"Is someone there?" he asked with a frown.

The girl turned to face the entrance to the ward and the two teens managed to hear snippets of a woman flirting with the security guards outside. "Hello, guards! Thanks for working so hard! Ooh! Another hottie!"

"Rie-san?" the girl gasped in surprise. "I wasn't expecting you today!"

"Who is she?" Naruto asked the girl as a chill ran down his spine when the woman began speaking again.

"Check out the bulging pecs on this guard! One look and my heart is all aflutter! Oh! I can't resist! Poke, poke. Poke!"

"Kishibe-sama!" Naruto heard the guard outside nervously try to resist the woman's advances. "I'm on duty!"

"Ooh! So hard!"

Naruto cringed at the tone the woman used as he returned his attention to his Digivice. "Kyoko-san…!" he hissed. "What do I do!?"

Kyoko remained calm though as she considered the situation. "Kishibe Rie… Making the rounds behind the scenes? I'm curious what a Kamishiro bigwig is doing here." She shook her head as that was a question that would have to wait. "We got the information we needed. Now get out of there," she instructed him. "No need to overstay your welcome." She looked away from the screen. "Oops! I've got a visitor as well." She urgently looked back at Naruto with a smirk. "Let's meet in the lobby, then. Don't rush and don't make a fuss!"

"Easy for you to say," Naruto wryly chuckled as they both terminated the call. He looked around the ward in a panic before the raven-haired girl grabbed his arm.

"Hide! Quickly!" she told him before pushing him into the command room.

"Right!" he nodded to her. "Thanks!"

The girl was a bit surprised by his gratitude but she didn't have too much time to focus on that. As soon as the blue-eyed boy was safe behind the command room doors, the entrance doors began to open. The girl turned to face the green-haired woman coming towards her.

"Oh, Yuuko-chan," Kishibe greeted her with a smile. "You're well, I trust?"

"Rie-san," Yuuko knit her eyebrows together. "Did something happen today? I don't recall seeing your name on the approved visitors' list."

The woman giggled. "No, I'm not! But maaaybe I was just struck with a sudden urge to see my dear, darling Yuuko-chan!"

"Are you worried about me being all by myself?" Yuuko frowned.

"Mm… My Rie-chan Sense was tingling and I had to come see if you were being a gloomy Gus again," she said, placing her right index finger on her lower lip. She studied Yuuko's downcast expression and smirked. "I knew it! This is all so terrible, isn't it?"

"Not particularly," Yuuko responded, lowering her gaze to the ground.

Kishibe giggled at the teen's façade. "Look at you, acting all strong. But I know." Her grin grew wider as she stepped closer to Yuuko. "Onee-chan knows all about it!"

Within the command room, Naruto nervously had his back pressed against the door. He didn't mean to eavesdrop, but the situation was completely unavoidable. They were right outside, for crying out loud. The Blonde boy grit his teeth as this was an extremely uncomfortable situation for him to be in but there was nothing else he could do. _Come on! Think! If there was ever a time I needed for my thoughts to run wild, now would be it!_ He shivered as Kishibe's giggling sounded a lot closer than it did before.

"By the wayyyy! What HAVE you been doing here?" Kishibe asked Yuuko.

"Eh… Nothing…" Yuuko shook her head. "Nothing special."

"A picnic of sorts?"

"Yes!" Yuuko nodded before shaking her head again. "I mean, no… It's not…" She bit her lower lip as she found herself tongue-tied.

"Hmm?" Kishibe smiled at the girl. "Yuuko-chan, is something the matter?" When the teen didn't answer, the woman put her hands together. "No? Is there perhaps someone else here? Perhaps… a boyyyfriend?"

Yuuko snapped her head up. "No! It's nothing like that!"

"Or maybe it's a girlfriend?" Kishibe giggled at how flustered the teen was. "Shall I have a little look around?" She lifted her gaze towards the command room doors. "Doing something unscrupulous in that room? Or better yet, something scandalous!" She giggled.

Yuuko's breath hitched in her throat. "Ah!"

Naruto heard footsteps coming closer as his blue eyes darted back and forth across the room. He spotted the computer he was using earlier and it suddenly occurred to him he had an exit available all along. Without another thought, he quickly ran to the desk.

Kishibe paused right in front the doors, relishing the amount of panic that was beginning to fill Yuuko's face. "Now, now," the woman called out to whoever might be in the room. "I've you all figured out. You can come out now, Yuuko-chan's lover-san! My name is Rie-onee-sama, and I am tasked with being Yuuko's guardian here." She giggled to herself and put on a wide grin. "Holding hands or locking lips? Guiding each other step by step towards adulthood!" The woman opened the door and looked around the empty room. "Well, drat! There's nobody here!" she whined. She shrugged it off before turning back to the slightly confused but very relieved raven-haired girl behind her. "But Yuuko-chan, it doesn't matter. You can bring one or two boyfriends, or even three dozen of them, if you'd like. Why, when I was your age…" she giggled as it probably wasn't a proper story to be telling to the poor girl. "Now, then. Let's check in and see how he's doing. Don't you think he'll be happy to see the two of us, together?"

Yuuko blinked as she realized Kishibe had been speaking to her. "Um, sure…" She frowned a bit as the woman walked past her. She curiously looked into the command room once more but found no sign of Naruto. "Where did he…?" She shook her head as it didn't really matter so long as he managed to get out safely.

 **In the digital line**

Naruto sighed in relief as Dorumon and Ryudamon appeared next to him. "are you okay Naruto-Dono?" Ryudamon asked concerned. Naruto nodded as Dorumon grinned cheekily "that's good. If you die you can't flirt horribly with women again" Naruto growled "Take that back you stinking furball!" He put Dorumon in a headlock which made Dorumon growl "who you calling a furball, you half-data weirdo!" the two continued arguing as Ryudamon watched with a smile _"is this what a family is like... it's nice"_ he thought to himself as Naruto and Dorumon stopped fighting and began laughing.

"come on. Let's go and the report to Kyoko." The party began to make their way back until the were hit by a blur. The three regained their bearings and looked at the blur. It was a serpent like digimon with large red wings on its back and what appeared to be half a skull on the top of its head.

"That's airdramon... but what's it doing here?" Airdramon growled at the three. "no... INTRUDERS!" it screamed as it charged at the three and tackled them before going airborne again. **"Metal Cannon"** Dorumon fired his attack but Airdramon twisted it's body to avoid the attack **"Iaijin!"** Ryudamon fired his attack but the airdramon dodged again. Dorumon decided to keep on the offence and kept firing metal cannons "It's no good... we can't hit it while it's flying above us" he was interrupted by Airdramon roaring **"Spinning needle!"** Airdramon released a blade of wind from its wings which knocked the two rookies off their feet. "Now for human" Airdramon charged at Naruto but the blonde was able to roll out the way. Unfortunately Airdramon swung his tail which hit Naruto, pushing him back, as his partners ran up to him "Naruto-Dono! Are you okay?" Naruto coughed as he got his breath back from that hit. "Yeah I'm fine" he grinned weakly as he noticed Dorumons concerned looks "Don't worry Furball. I'll be okay" he said jokingly.

Dorumon went in front of him and slowly walked towards Airdramon who was roaring "I can handle being beaten up... I can handle being made fun of... but if you hurt my friends... I'LL NEVER FORGIVE YOU!" Dorumon roared as Naruto's digivice started glowing making it beep _**"Digivolve initiated"**_

 **Brave heart by Ayumi Miyazaki begins playing**

Data started to swirl around Dorumon as he began to change. **"Dorumon Digivolve to..."** His new form had black fur with purple lightning-like stripes on most of its body. His claws were now long and red and his tail had grown. The fur around the base of it neck, on its chest, paws, snout, on the inside of its wings, and the end of its tail is white. The wings on his back had grown large enough that it looked like he could fly with ease. **"Dorugamon!"**

Ryudamon and Naruto stared in awe at Dorugamon "you digivolved..." Ryudamon stated. Dorugamon grinned and nodded as he charged at Airdramon and tackled him. Airdramon tried to fly away to escape. But Dorugamon flapped his wings and chased after him and caught him quickly "You're not getting away!" he began spinning the airdramon around and tossed him towards the ground **"Power Metal!"** Dorugamon fired a larger version of his usual attack. The attack hit the airdramon and turned him into data.

 **song end**

Once the airdramon was destroyed Dorugamon took a deep breath and turned back into Dorumon. "I'm hungry..." he whined as Ryudamon and Naruto ran up to him "Dorumon what was that?!" Naruto asked, making Dorumon grin "That was my awesomeness!" Ryudamon rolled his eyes and decided to give a proper answer "that was digivolution. It's when a digimon enters the next stage. For example Dorumon changing from Child to Adult" Naruto nodded as the three left the data network.

Kyoko greeted Naruto with a proud smirk as soon as he came out of the elevator, relatively unscathed. "You escaped that predicament all on your own," she chuckled. "See, I knew you could do it!"

Naruto flashed her a smirk. "It was an ordeal, but I guess I did make it out alive. It's all thanks to Dorumon" this made the digimon chuckle from within the digivice "aww. You're making me blush. Just give your dinner for the next week and we'll call it even" he said jokingly

The detective shook her head at his joke. "Now, then, shall we head back?"

Kyoko sympathetically frowned as Naruto finished his detailed report of what happened. "I can't imagine what the shock of seeing your own body from the outside is like," she shook her head. "If we think of it like an out-of-body experience, maybe we can find a solution."

"Do you really think so?" Naruto asked with a worried frown.

The detective nodded. "You're the first EDEN Syndrome patient to exhibit these particular symptoms—the first 'irregular' amongst them."

"Irregular?" The Blonde boy frowned as he remembered Yuugo had used that term to describe him before.

Kyoko smiled. "Simply knowing that is a major step in getting to the bottom of this. We can't rush the investigation," she sternly crossed her arms. "We mustn't hurry things along. Stay cool. Stay calm." She looked up at the calligraphy framed above the window behind her, directing Naruto's attention to it as she did so. "Doggedly and with all your might, exhibit endurance like hard black iron," Kyoko nodded before looking back towards Naruto. "My father used to say that all the time," she fondly recalled. She blinked at the teen when she noticed he was fixated by the agency's motto.

"Doggedly and with all our might, exhibit endurance like hard black iron," Naruto seriously repeated as he engraved the quote into his memory.

The detective smiled at his earnestness. "But back to the issue at hand," she stated, recapturing his attention. "What are you planning to do next?"

The blue-eyed boy's face slightly scrunched up in pain before he settled on a sad frown. He brought his hand up to his chin as he truly considered his next move. "I… don't really know…"

"Don't you want to return to your original body?" Kyoko asked him. "Don't you want to know the truth of what happened?"

"I do but…" He glanced up towards her in surprise. "Are you really asking me to be your assistant?" he tentatively asked back. Naruto noticed she was serious about her offer so he gave her a determined nod. "If that's the case, then I accept."

"Hmph," the detective crossed her arms and wore a satisfied smirk. "Then it's decided. You should work here, as my assistant."

"Just like that!?" Naruto blinked at her.

"There'll be many cases dealing with EDEN and cyber crime. The more work you do, the more clues we'll be able to find. Don't worry," she reassured him. "I'm certain of your potential. And while you're at it, I'll cover your room and board," she chuckled. The woman smiled at him and nodded. "Besides, with your talents, who else is better suited for a cyber-investigation? I'm expecting great things!"

"Understood," he stated with a nod.

"Excellent!" Kyoko smiled back. "We have an agreement. From this point forward, you are my assistant Cyber Sleuth." She nodded her head towards the sofa she usually sat at. "Hmm. Have a seat on the sofa and wait. I'll make some coffee. We'll drink a toast to celebrate!" She got up from her seat and quickly prepared a cup.

When it was finally presented to Naruto, the Blonde boy frowned at the swirl of green and pinkish purple sludge drowning in the mud-colored liquid. _Ah… Didn't Detective Matayoshi warn me about this?_ "H-hey, Kyoko-san… What did you put in here?"

"Seaweed and red bean paste coffee," Kyoko said as she took a sip from her own cup. "My specialty."

"E-eh!?" his blue eyes widened as the woman seemed to be enjoying her strange blend. "S-s-specialty…?"

"Oh, I know it looks all fancy," she nodded, "but wait until you get a load of the flavor and aroma!" She raised her cup into the air. "Here's to you, Cyber Sleuth!"

"Y-yeah…!" Naruto raised his cup too before hesitantly leveling it in front of his face. He stared at it for a few seconds before deciding it was probably best if he downed the drink as quickly as he could. He attempted to gulp it down but the strange texture on top of the awful taste caused him to gag. Still, he forced his body to accept the concoction. "That wasn't so… bad…" he nervously tried to convince himself with a laugh before passing out from what Kyoko believed to be the day's excitement.

"Hmm…" the detective smiled at her new assistant's zeal. "He's a lot tougher than I thought. To become a hacker, obtain two rare digimon without the Digimon Capture, lose his body, infiltrate a hospital, have one of digimon digivolve despite being partners for only a day and become my assistant all… It's quite remarkable that you've accepted _and_ adapted to the situation in just a span of a few days. Uzumaki Naruto… You truly are an 'irregular', even amongst irregulars."

 **Hi Everyone. That's the end of chapter 2. Hope you liked it. A response to one of the reviews, yes Naruto will receive more partners but I will not say which ones. Also I might at some point crossover cyber sleuth and Hackers Memory. Again they are in the same time line. Anyway have fun**


	3. Digital Monster

Naruto went back into his apartment after the long day he had and lied down on his bed before putting his goggles over his eyes "hey guys... can you tell me more about the digital world?" he asked his digimon as their faces appeared on the screen "Sure! It's a wonderful place! Beautiful forests, delicious food. It's like a paradise!" Dorumon shouted causing Naruto to smile "I'd like to go there someday." Ryudamon spoke up "if we find a way back we'll definitely take you there" Naruto nodded "goodnight guys. We're gonna be busy tomorrow" he took off his goggles and placed them on his night stand and gently dozed off.

 **Next day**

Naruto took a deep breath before entering the Kuremi Detective Agency for his first day of work. He opened the door to the messy office and saw that Kyoko was already sitting at her desk. Her eyes flickered towards him before returning to her monitor.

"So you're finally here," she nodded to him.

"Yeah," the teen nodded. "I'm ready for my first case."

"Then let's get down to it," Kyoko crossed her arms. "I have something for you."

"What is it?" Naruto approached Kyoko's desk in anticipation.

"Your first duty to kick off your new career as a Cyber Sleuth," she smirked. "If Nakano is going to be your base of operations, you should make the rounds and introduce yourself at the various establishments here."

"That… doesn't sound very interesting…" Naruto's face fell in slight disappointment.

"Not so," Kyoko shook her head at him. "You'll be depending on these places a lot, so it's important they know who you are."

The blonde boy took a moment to consider her point before nodding. "Alright, I understand."

Satisfied he wasn't going to make too much of a fuss over his simple first task, Kyoko looked around her office. "Hmm…" She quickly spotted the whiteboard hanging on the back wall. "Oh yeah. Let me explain about the whiteboard. Hanging on the wall to the right of my desk is a whiteboard. You see it?"

Naruto turned his head to the board and nodded. "What about it?"

"You can accept cases from there," she told him. "Field practice is better than book learning," she stated with a nod. "I'll put some simple cases up on the whiteboard. Check it out and start working on some cases."

"Okay then," he obediently walked up to it and noticed Kyoko had already posted up a case for him. He pushed aside the red magnet and examined the note.

 _Client: Kuremi Kyoko_

 _Place: Kuremi Detective Agency_

 _Details: Purchase coffee beans at K-Café. You can find the place yourself. Make sure you say hello to everyone._

Naruto blinked at the task. "You really had to make this a 'case'?" he asked her with a crooked smile on his face. "What's the point of posting this up here?"

"Seems like you accepted it though," Kyoko smirked at him. "It's pretty straightforward. When you want to take on a new case, get one from the whiteboard, just like that. I'll add new cases every so often, so make sure to check it from time to time." She watched as Naruto prepared a folder for his first case. "Anyway, go on and start talking to people. I'm counting on you for my case, too." She sternly looked him in the eye. "It's very important for you to obtain those coffee beans."

"Alright," Naruto nervously chuckled. "I feel like an errand boy rather than a detective's assistant though."

"Think of this as a test," she shrugged. "I might be your client, but don't think that means you can slack off."

"I'm off then," the teen waved to her as he left the office. He started down the hall, but paused when he spotted a purple-haired woman waiting for him. "Eh? Mirei-san…"

"Good day, Cyber Sleuth," she greeted him.

Naruto stared at the store behind her and noticed it was a consultation booth. "Eh!? Don't tell me you work here too!?"

She chuckled at his observation. "I thought it was about time you came by. Won't you come inside my little shop? There's something I have to do for you."

"What is it?" the boy asked.

She impatiently pushed up her glasses. "We are bound by fate to do this. Hurry, please." She quickly grabbed his arm and dragged him into the store.

"W-wait…! What are you…?"

"Okay then. Stick out your right hand," Mirei directed him. "It'll be over soon. Hold still." She put a black glove on his right hand. What shocked Naruto was the symbol on the glove... it was the symbol of his home village. The leaf. "H-How do you-" Mirei pushed up her glasses "that's a story for another day."

Naruto stared at his outstretched arm and blinked at his new glove. "So… what exactly did you do?"

"I installed a special program into your cyber form, adding certain features," Mirei proudly explained. "You can now scan physical things with your right glove and capture cyber data of the target. In other words, once things from the real world are in your hand, they can become cyber data and be brought into cyberspace with you."

The boy's blue eyes widened in amazement. "Is that really possible!?" He lowered his arm and stared at the strange, but incredible lady.

She simply nodded to him. "Acquired data will be kept in your storage. Such a convenient world we live in today, don't you think?" she asked with a smirk. "Modern technology and whatnot."

Naruto placed his hands on his hips and shook his head at her. "This isn't just any technology!" he cried.

"You shouldn't be surprised by such things," Mirei frowned at him. "Your body will continue to…" she quickly stopped herself with a shake of her head. "No, it's better if you don't know what the future holds. All should be as fate directs."

"Fate, huh?" Naruto frowned at his strange body. Even if it has been a few days, he still wasn't quite used to it. "I wonder what lies ahead of me…"

"If you lose your way, come and see me," Mirei told him with an encouraging smile. "I shall be happy to point you in the right direction, to the best of my ability. Use a Connectt Jump to come directly to the DigiLab from wherever you might be."

"Thanks," Naruto gratefully smiled, "I suppose…"

Mirei suddenly became serious as she pushed up her glasses to consider something. "The border between this world and the digital world is growing thinner and thinner," she mused. "The proof of that lies in the fact that I was able to meet you in the real world." Naruto knit his eyebrows together but remained silent. "But that might not be a good thing as far as the world is concerned. This is likely the harbinger of far worse things to come." Mirei looked over to Naruto once more and gave him a small smile. "Meeting with you assures me of the light of hope that will shine for this world." She chuckled to herself. "I wonder if I will enjoy this new world. Until we meet again in the DigiLab!"

"Until then…" Naruto waved to her as she went back inside. "I guess…" He was about to start off on the rest of his tour of Nakano Broadway. As he was leaving he never saw the smile on Mirei face "I expect a lot from you... former jinchuriki."

After completing his introductory tour of the first floor, Naruto stepped out of the elevator and onto the second floor. He looked towards the hall to his right and spotted a CD shop. "Oh, cool! A music store!" He started towards it to greet the workers inside before he heard a girl's voice behind him.

"Huh? Oh, hey!"

Naruto turned around to see who it was and blinked when he spotted a familiar face. "Ah! Nokia!" he greeted his friend with a relieved smile. _So she's okay after all!_

"You're safe! That's great…" Nokia smiled back at him. "Well, I assumed so," she nodded. "After what happened in the digital world, you should be fine in the real one. But are those little critters okay, I wonder?"

"Critters…?" Naruto tilted his head to the side before he remembered there had been other Digimon in Cron that day. Before he could say anything though, Nokia freaked out.

"No way! You don't remember? You insensitive clod!" Nokia shook her head at him. "The Digimon that protected me!" She frowned to herself. "I'm a little worried. Had they not been around, it would have been…" She sighed. "Well… I've got this problem and I've had it since I was a kid. When things get serious, I always get frightened. It's like my mind goes blank and I freeze up. That must have sucked for you. I'm really sorry."

Naruto shook his head. "It's alright. I was scared then too," he gave her a reassuring smile. "But thanks to the Digimon, we're okay." _Well… more or less okay,_ he mentally thought as he fidgeted with his glove. "are we just invisible," Dorumon asked with a playful pout. This made Nokia gasp "Dorumon! Ryudamon! You guys survived as well" Dorumon smiled as Ryudamon spoke up "it's great to see you again Nokia-Hime" Nokia sighed "I wish Agumon and Gabumon were here" Naruto smiled "don't worry. I'm sure they're fine"

Nokia curiously stared at the blonde boy. "Hey, are you out shopping right now?"

"Nope," Naruto shook his head. "I just recently got a job as a Cyber Sleuth so I'm actually working right now."

"Wow, you're a Cyber Sleuth?" Nokia stared at him in amazement. "That's great! A Cyber Sleuth? Really?" She blinked a few times. "A Cyber Sleuth…" A sudden look of confusion appeared on her face. "What is that exactly? What's a Cyber Sleuth?" She knit her eyebrows together as she stared at Naruto. "It's no skin off my nose! I don't know if it's good or bad. I totally gave up on figuring it out. It's probably better than being a hacker!" she shrugged. Suddenly she began yelling. "That said, I'm a hacker!"

"Well, you do have the Digimon Capture program," Naruto stated with a chuckle. "Just like me and Arata…"

At the mention of the older boy, Nokia shook her head. "Arata! He was a hacker! He helped us out, but he was a total hacker!" She frowned at that thought. "That's a little depressing, knowing I was lied to this whole time. I haven't seen him since. Ugh! This is the pits."

"It's not that bad," the boy tried to console her.

"It's times like these I want to throw on the new Jimiken single," Nokia nodded. "Get my freak on."

"Jimiken…?" Naruto winced when the girl began singing.

"La la la laaaa~! The saaad hummingbiiird~!"

Naruto covered his ears. "What is that?"

"Hm?" Nokia blinked at him. "That's the newest hit Jimiken single! You should pick it up!"

The detective's assistant nervously chuckled. "Maybe another time… I still have a job to do after all."

The girl pouted a bit but decided to leave it be since he seemed to be busy. "Well, alright. Later, Cyber Sleuth!" she waved to him as he left the store.

As soon as Naruto stepped into K-Café he was hit by the strong scent of coffee. "Welcome!" the man behind the counter called out to him.

Naruto smiled as he maneuvered through the empty café. "Yup, this is definitely the place," he nodded.

A girl with blonde hair at the side of the counter greeted him too with a curtsy. "Welcome! Please come in! Take any open seat!"

"Ah, thank you, but I'm here to pick up some coffee beans for Kyoko-san," Naruto explained. "I'm her new assistant, Aiba Naruto."

The man blinked at him in surprise. "You're Kuremi-san's assistant? She hired an assistant?" He eyed the young boy enviously. "Wow. So you get to bask in her radiant beauty to your heart's content whenever you want, huh?" He shook his head as he looked around the counter for the coffee beans. "I'm so jealous! It's outrageous! Truly outrageous!"

"Boss?" The girl looked to the owner in surprise.

The owner turned to her. "Yes? What is it, Sacchan?"

"You don't look at me like that, do you?" she frowned, staring down at her cat-eared maid uniform.

"What?" the man was taken aback.

"Oh, you creep!" Sacchan glared at him. "You total perv! I quit! Right here and now!"

"What? What!?" the man shook his head.

"And I'm taking full payment for this month's salary," the girl crossed her arms. "Plus I'll be billing you for 20 months of leering. You're paying me psychological damages!"

"Uh…" Naruto frowned as he looked around the empty establishment. "If now is a bad time I can come back later…"

Sacchan looked over to Naruto and blinked at him. "Oh, our customer! You wanted some coffee beans, right?" She reached into the basket she was carrying and handed him a bag. "These are the coffee beans Kyoko-san always buys. Here you are!"

"Thank you very much!" Naruto nodded as he accepted them. He took his time to pull out his wallet and watched as the owner begged his employee to stay.

"Hang on, Sacchan! Quitting out of the blue like that kinda puts me in a bind!"

"Does it now?" Sacchan frowned at him. "Well then, shall be negotiate, boss?"

"Negotiate? F-for what?"

"For what?" The girl shook her head. "Why, for my hourly rate, of course! If you're going to play stupid, I'll sue! We're talking a harassment lawsuit here!"

"Yikes!"

During the negotiation, Naruto slipped the money onto the counter and managed to get to the door. Still, he watched for a while longer before chuckling to himself. "They make quite the pair," he muttered. "Be that as it may… I've got the beans Kyoko-san asked for."

As he opened the door to leave, Sacchan called out to him. "Thank you very much! Come back any time!"

"Thanks again!" Naruto nodded to her. As soon as he was outside, he closed his eyes to figure out his next move. "That should be enough saying hi. I should get back to the office."

"they were certainly... colourful" Ryudamon said with a sweatdrop "we should go there more often" Dorumon said with a grin. Naruto nodded and walked back to the office

"I'm home!" Naruto jokingly called out as he returned to the agency.

"Welcome home," Kyoko looked up from her monitor and smirked at him. "Looks like you've cracked the case. But you shouldn't bother me with it," she shook her head. "When you complete a case, note it down on the whiteboard."

"Alright," Naruto nodded as he finished up filling out the case report. He quickly put away the coffee beans in the office's kitchen before noticing Kyoko already finished reading his report, not that he wrote much to begin with. She was patiently waiting for him now and he quickly stood in front of her desk. "What's next?"

"It seems you've made your rounds," she satisfactorily stated. "They're quite a bunch of characters, but that's what it takes to survive in Nakano. Next, I'm going to have you hit the streets."

"Alright!" Naruto eagerly exclaimed.

"I want to see how well your digital self can blend in, in the real world. The final stage of your testing," she nodded. "Go around Shinjuku asking questions. You might find yourself the topic of rumors. People saw you looking like that, after all."

"Well, it has been a while," Naruto crossed his arms. "I doubt anybody would figure out that it was me on the streets that day." He curiously tried to get a peek of what was on Kyoko's computer. "But what about you?"

"While you're doing that, I'll clean up my affairs," she smiled as she turned the monitor to the side so he couldn't look. "I've got to make a report of my investigation to Detective Matayoshi."

"Eh…? Even you have to make reports to someone?" Naruto raised an eyebrow at her. "Alright then, Im off!"

 **Later**

Naruto stepped out of the station and took a good look at the area before he spotted a tall boy with black hair. The former ninja quickly called out to him with a gin on his face. "Arata!"

The older boy turned around and his eyes widened in surprise and relief. "Naruto! You're all right!"

"For the most part, yeah," the detective's assistant nodded. "How about you?"

"What, me?" the older boy smirked at him. "I'm fine as well, as you can see. If anyone was gonna be looking for trouble, I'm guess it'd be Nokia," he joked. "You can either peg her for a chicken or toughie, but she gets what's coming to her."

"Eh…?" Naruto nervously chuckled. "She was worried about you too, you know. I saw her earlier today at Nakano Broadway."

Arata nodded in relief to know she was safe, but he crossed his arms and frowned. "But still, that monster… That's the first time I've seen it. I'd heard rumors of some nasty program, preying on data. Then I asked the admins about it, but they insisted they knew nothing. Don't you think that's a little strange?" he asked. "The admins should have noticed something like that."

"Are you referring to the admins from Kamishiro?" Naruto frowned.

The older boy nodded. "Something bothers me about all this. I've half a mind to look into things properly."

"So do I…" the detective's assistant crossed his arms.

"At the very least," Arata shrugged, "this doesn't seem to be an official event or a prank by some third-rate hacker either."

"Ah, Arata, that reminds me," Naruto studied the older boy. "Aren't you a hacker too? Even before you got the Digimon Capture program?"

"Huh?" the older boy didn't think Naruto would pick up on that. "You say I'm a hacker too?" He sheepishly chuckled and shook his head. "Well, what can I say about that? It is what it is."

"You're really not going to say anymore on that subject, are you?" Naruto crookedly smirked.

Arata quickly turned away from him. "Oh! I just remembered I've got an appointment to keep. I've gotta be off."

"Of course," the former ninja chuckled. "It was good seeing you, Arata."

The raven-haired boy flashed him a smirk and nodded. "I'll see you later."

Naruto watched him head down to the station for a while. He closed his eyes and frowned to himself. "So Kamishiro Enterprise is keeping that monster a secret too… Could it be related to EDEN Syndrome?" He opened his eyes and sighed. "It must be considering the state I'm in… I'd better remember to bring this up with Kyoko-san later."

 **Back in the office**

Hmm," Kyoko crossed her arms and smirked. "The folks who saw you earlier didn't seem to make much of big deal about it."

"That's right," Naruto nodded. "Out of the all the rumors I managed to gather, the most widespread is the one about my sudden appearance all being a staged guerilla film shooting, complete with a car chase scene."

The detective raised her eyebrow at this. "If that's so, you'll be fine walking the streets."

"Yup!" Naruto smiled.

"By the way," Kyoko frowned. "Not to change the subject, but I've readied a new EDEN account for you."

"Huh? Why?" the Blonde boy asked. "What's wrong with my old one?"

"Your existing account isn't being recognized properly on the EDEN Network," she explained. "As a result, you can't log in normally. You can 'invade' a service using a Connect Jump, but with an invalid account, you won't be able to do much. That would hinder your work, so from now on, log in with the new account I got for you."

"Sure thing," Naruto nodded. "Is there anything else?"

"Well," Kyoko glanced at the wall clock. "It's almost time."

Naruto curiously tilted his head to the side. _It's probably an appointment but…_ "Is it snack time?" he asked with a wide grin.

Kyoko blinked at him in surprise before smirking at him. "I see… You're looking forward to my coffee."

"Eh!?" the teen tensed up at how poorly his joke turned on him.

"I hate to make you wait for it," the woman brushed her hair aside, "but let's have our coffee break later. It's time for work, my dear assistant," she nodded. Her eyes went toward the agency's entrance and a soft voice began to speak to them through the door.

"Um… Is this the Kuremi Detective Agency?" the girl asked from outside.

Naruto blinked as he recognized that voice from somewhere. He dismissed that thought though as he walked over to the door to open it for their client.

"Right on time!" Kyoko smirked. "She seems like she'll be an excellent client." She nodded to her assistant to let her in. "Please, come in."

"Thank you," Yuuko nodded as she entered, but she paused when she saw Naruto holding the door open for her.

"Welcome to the Kuremi Detective—Ah…!" he stared at her with surprised blue eyes. _The girl from the hospital…_

"It's you!" Yuuko returned his startled expression with one of her own.

"What's this?" Kyoko looked between the two teenagers. "You two know each other?"

"I wouldn't put it that way," Yuuko shook her head.

"Yeah… it's not that we know each other," Naruto said, casting his eyes away from the girl. "It's more like… we're acquainted with each other… And even then… it's probably not really that..." he frowned to himself as he had no way to clearly explain it.

Yuuko knit her eyebrows together but remained silent as she neither agreed nor disagreed with the teen's words.

"Hmm..." Kyoko looked between the two teenagers before shrugging it off. "Well, regardless, you are Yamashina Yuuko, my new client?" she asked the raven-haired girl.

"Yamashina…?" Naruto blinked. _And here I thought she was Kamishiro…_

"Yes," Yuuko nodded. "I am Yamashina Yuuko."

"Let me inquire, then, into the details of the case," Kyoko professionally stated. "Please be seated on that sofa there."

"Yes," the girl nodded as she did as asked.

Naruto closed the door and stood at his usual position as Kyoko sat on the sofa opposite of Yuuko. He remained silent as the girl began to explain the details of her case.

"My… my father… has disappeared," she began.

"Disappeared?" Kyoko asked, bringing her hand up to her mouth.

"He's gone missing," Yuuko nodded. "I'd like to ask a detective to seek out and find my missing father, Yamashina Makoto."

"Hmm… Do you have any info on your father?"

"Yes," Yuuko raised her left hand and Naruto watched as she fidgeted with the goggles strapped to her arm. "The basic information is all here. I'll send you the data." There was a light blip, indicating the files were successfully sent. "But the only possible clue I have would be the EDEN account info he used. When you query the account info, it says it's still currently active, but…"

"There's no response when you call?" Kyoko guessed.

"None whatsoever," Yuuko shook her head. She paused for a moment and frowned. "Please find my father," she requested of them.

"I understand," the blonde detective nodded. "We'll take the case on."

"I…!" Yuuko seemed a bit surprised that it was so easily accepted, but she gratefully bowed her head. "Thank you very much."

"Well then, let's get started!" Kyoko stated. "I'll let you know if there are any developments. Would you mind giving me your contact information?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes when Yuuko shrunk back a little. The girl shook her head as she answered. "No… That won't be necessary. I'll come by again in a little while."

Naruto brought his hand up to his mouth and closed his eyes. _Just what is she hiding?_

"I must be going," Yuuko said as she stood up. "Pardon me."

When their client was gone, Kyoko brought her hand up to her mouth. "I see…"

Her assistant opened his eyes. "What is it, Kyoko-san?"

The woman returned to her desk and ran a search on the data Yuuko sent them. "Yamashina-san's account info checks out. And my conclusion is this: I believe that someone has hacked this account."

"Is the solution really that simple?" Naruto asked, crossing his arms.

Kyoko nodded and showed him the related evidence. "There are numerous strange points of activity that I can see with the account and multiple Yamashina Makoto roaming EDEN. It's got to be the result of an account raid. Everyone's been clamoring about that sort of thing recently."

"An account raid…?" Naruto frowned. "I see…"

"I want you to start by tracking down the active traces of the Yamashina account," Kyoko directed him. "Account hacking is sometimes connected to organized crime. Take your investigation to EDEN and ask questions. We might get some info on these account raids."

"Understood," the assistant nodded.

"You're up, my dear Watson!" Kyoko chuckled. "Proceed to EDEN and start asking around." She frowned as she decided to investigate something else on her computer. "Account raiding is starting to be a real problem. I don't know much about getting Yamashina Makoto's information, but… look into that as well, would you? Go on, log into EDEN."

 **In EDEN**

Naruto's investigation around EDEN led him to discover that Zaxon may have been involved with the recent account raids throughout the network. This made the investigator frown though as he remembered Team Zaxon was the hacker group Yuugo had been a part of. Still, if he wanted to learn more about it, he would have to ask an actual hacker of Cron for details.

His search of Galacta Park led him to an ex-member of Zaxon and Naruto managed to get a URL to Zaxon's forum room. The link took him directly to the hacking team's headquarters and Naruto was surprised to find so many hackers congregated into one area. Still, it seems as though the attitude of Zaxon was a bit more diverse than he had previously thought.

While it was undisputed that Yuugo was the apparent leader, Naruto didn't think the powerful hacker's idea of 'order' in EDEN meant account raiding. Yet, a part of Zaxon seemed to be engaging in the 'chaotic' criminal activity. This coupled with the fact that new hackers were apparently cropping up all over EDEN, it was no wonder the large hacking team was so disorganized.

Still, the investigator managed to dig up even more information and worm his way into Cron's second level. Naruto stared at the mask he had been given and frowned as it clashed with the Zaxon logo he noticed the proud members of the hacking team wore on their vests. The mask was more reminiscent of a demonic clown, but Naruto figured it couldn't be helped if this was his only way to access Cron's deeper territory.

Naruto flashed the mask to the last hacker standing guard in the area. The green-vested boy waved him off without so much as a glance and Naruto frowned as his task to infiltrate the account raiding operation had been much simpler than he could have ever imagined. Still, he kept his guard up and prepared his Digimon team before approaching the group of masked hackers gathered.

They seemed to have been meeting up with a businessman of some sort and Naruto did his best to blend in with them. He paused though when he noticed they weren't wearing the normal Zaxon vests. They all wore black hooded jackets with purple lining and the sharp blue-eyed boy spotted a different logo emblazoned onto it

 _Demons?_ Naruto frowned at that and it caught the attention of a masked boy with straw blonde hair.

"Huh?" he challenged Naruto. "Who the hell're you? You yankin' my chain? Showin' up here like this?" He prepared his Digivice. "I'm gonna kick you right on outta here!"

Naruto quickly pulled out the mask he had been given. "Hold up! I'm one of you!" he nervously replied. "See?"

"I've got infinite extra lives!" the boy declared before he spotted the mask Naruto was holding up. "Whoa, wait, what? Are you with us too?" He crossed his arms and examined the Blonde. "A newbie? Did you raid someone's account?"

Naruto smiled and nodded at him. "Sure did," he lied.

"Well, excellent! Next time, let's raid together!" the hacker offered. "You promise?" He didn't wait for Naruto to answer as he chuckled. "You came at a good time. You with me?"

"Why? What's going on?" Naruto curiously asked.

"Have a look over there," the other hacker pointed to the masked businessman. "That's Mephisto-san," he whispered. "He buys any hijacked accounts from us directly."

"I see…" Naruto nodded as he started for the strange man.

"What, you're off already?" the hacker asked in surprise. "Mephisto-san's a little crazy, so be careful!"

The detective's assistant took the warning to heart as he slowly approached Mephisto-san. "Accounts… Hand them over…" the man stated. "Ugh… Accounts… Accounts…"

Naruto tilted his head to the side and frowned. _There's something not right here, but I might as well start questioning him._ "I want to ask about account raids," he began.

"Hurry… Accounts… Hand them over… Accounts!" the man continued to say.

Naruto shook his head as it didn't seem the man had even heard him. "Come on. I'm asking you about account raiding."

"Acc…?" Mephisto-san suddenly began babbling.

The masked hacker stared at Mephisto-san oddly. "Who!? What did you do to him?" he asked Naruto. He shook his head to check on Mephisto-san. "Mephisto-san, are you rollin'?"

"I don't think that's it…" Naruto frowned as he sensed something was extremely wrong.

"Y-y-you," Mephisto-san turned on the Blonde. "You didn't bring iiiiit! S-s-so, so, give me your account!"

"Hey, calm down, Mephisto-san-san!" the masked hacker tried to say. "Look, you're freakin' the newbie out! Mephisto-san-san!"

The masked business man let out a yell and a Growmon emerged behind him "a digimon?!" Naruto exclaimed as the Growmon charged at him but was stopped by Dorumon and Ryudamon jumping out of Naruto's digivice **"Metal Cannon!"** Dorumon hit the champion in the side of its face, causing it to stumble back, as Ryudamon tackled it "Dorumon. Digivolve!" Dorumon nodded as Naruto's digivice glowed as he began to transform **"Dorumon digivolve to... Dorugamon!"**

Dorumon entered his champion form and roared as he flew towards the Growmon **"Power Metal!"** Ryudamon jumped out the way as Dorugamon fired his attack, hitting the Growmon in the stomach. The Growmon stood back up "Accounts... Accounts... NEED MORE ACCOUNTS!" it yelled as it surrounded itself in a red aura **"EXHAUST FLAME!"** it roared as it fired a torrent of flames and Dorugamon, making him scream in pain and made him collapse onto the floor. Dorugamon shakily stood back up **"Power Metal!"** he fired his attack again, though the Growmon shrugged it off this time.

The Growmon swiped his tail at Dorugamon and knocked him into Ryudamon, reverting him back into Dorumon, as Naruto ran up to the two of them "are you guys alright?!" Dorumon tried to stand up, but failed to "I'm sorry... he's just to strong..." he said weakly before blacking out "Dorumon!" Naruto and Ryudamon yelled as Naruto recalled him. Ryudamon stood up, clearly pissed, at what happened to Dorumon. "you've done it now... I swear on my honour... I WILL DEFEAT YOU!" as Ryudamon yelled Naruto's digivice glowed

 **Brave heart starts playing**

" **Ryudamon digivolve to..."** Data began to swirl around Ryudamon as he began to transform. He crouched down to stand on all fours as his armour began to grow until it covered everywhere except his legs and his tail grew as it was covered **"Ginryumon!"**

Naruto gasped "Ryudamon digivolve as well..." The growmon roared and charged up his attack again **"Exhaust flame!"** he fired the same flames as before making Naruto gasp "Ginryumon move!" Ginryumon however decided to stand his ground **"Boujinha!"** He shouted as he charged, cleaving right through the wave of fire, and striking the Growmon in the stomach making it cry out in pain

"let's end this! **Tekkoujin!** " Ginryumon yelled as he fired dozens of small spears from his mouth and pelted the growmon with them until he dispersed. Ginryumon sighed as he turned back into Ryudamon "that was exhausting..."

 **Song end**

Ryudamon was suddenly hugged by Naruto "Ryudamon that was Awesome!" this made Ryudamon blush in embarrassment "Y-Youre too kind Naruto-Dono..." Naruto's digivice then beeped as Dorumon appeared on a screen with a weak smile due to his injuries "good job buddy! You showed that oversized dino what for"

The three started laughing as Naruto's Digivice beeped again. He quickly answered the call, revealing it to be Kyoko. "Ah, Kyoko-san. I just fought a Digimon who was apparently collecting raided accounts from some Zaxon hackers. Without someone to sell the accounts to, the hacking should die down a little."

"I see," Kyoko nodded. "All's well that ends well. This really is such an interesting case."

"How so?"

"There are humans with Digimon collections," the detective mused. "Do you suppose the opposite must be true as well? I somehow don't find it strange that there are Digimon with collections of human account information. Still, for it to be that Mephisto-san…" she brought her hand up to her chin. "It looks like the Digimon completely overtook its user's mental data, becoming the user itself."

"Eh…? Is that really possible?" Naruto asked. He frowned as he remembered his body. "Well… I suppose it's not _completely_ out there…"

Kyoko nodded in agreement. "I want to check out what effect this has one the real world but it doesn't pertain to our current investigation. Maybe next time," she shrugged.

"Alright," Naruto nodded. "So what now?"

"The accounts collected by the Digimon included the forcibly overtaken account of Yamashina Makoto. You've done good work today. Come back to the agency," she directed him. "The wheels of fortune are ever turning." She chuckled to herself. "I should bear that in mind. Is that not so, my dear Watson?"

The Cyber Sleuth crookedly grinned at her. "I suppose…"

Kyoko looked over the data again before addressing her assistant. "Thanks to the release of Yamashina's account, I was able to salvage the account information."

"Did you discover anything of note?" Naruto curiously asked.

"I found his current address and checked it," she nodded. "Along the way I looked into his family data. Some interesting facts came to light," she said with a knowing smirk.

"Let me guess…" the boy brought his hand up to his chin. "Is it something about his daughter?

The blonde detective raised her eyebrow at the sharp teen. "Our client—this 'Yamashina Yuuko'—is very clearly not the same daughter listed here," she nodded. "Should I have guessed as much? Or should I say it's just too silly?"

"Silly?" Naruto frowned. "What do you mean by that?"

"You still haven't figured it out?" Kyoko chuckled. "Our work relationship remains sound!" she said in satisfaction.

"Well, I had my suspicions about our client from the beginning, but I didn't think it through that far," the Blonde boy shrugged.

"For now, let's head to the Yamashina house," the detective said, standing from her desk. "What shall we find in the home of a man who's disappeared? There's only one way to find out."

Naruto looked around the apartment complex as Kyoko rang the doorbell. Things seemed pretty normal so far and it didn't take long before a gentle voice answered them. "Yes, who is it?"

The door opened and Kyoko greeted the glasses-wearing man. "Good afternoon. This is the Yamashina residence, is it not?"

"It is, but…" the man frowned at them in confusion. "Who are you?"

Kyoko crossed her arms as she seriously responded. "I'm actually looking for someone. Excuse me, but might I inquire as to your name?"

"Eh, I'm Yamashina Makoto, but…"

Naruto stared at the man in surprise. _He doesn't seem missing to me… So what was that girl's reason for giving us a case like this?_ He remained silent though as Kyoko continued.

"Thank you, Yamashina-san," she nodded before bringing her hand to her mouth. "One more question, sir. I've heard someone in this area has gone missing. Might you know who that could be?"

"A missing person?" Yamashina frowned at them. "No," he shook his head. I don't have the slightest idea."

"I see," she said in feigned disappointment. "Might I speak with your family about this as well?"

Naruto curiously looked past the man's shoulder, curious as to see who his daughter really was, but Yamashina shook his head. "Unfortunately, my wife and daughter are out at the moment," the man stated.

"Where might your daughter be?" Kyoko asked.

"Papa?" A voice asked from behind the two investigators. "What's the matter?"

Yamashina looked up and smiled. "Ah, you're home! Such good timing! There's someone here who wants a word with you."

Naruto turned and stood out of the way as a girl with light brown hair approached her father's side. _As I thought… It's not Yuuko-san._

"This is my daughter, Chika," Yamashina nodded to Kyoko.

Naruto knit his eyebrows together. _Yamashina Chika… So who does that make Yuuko?_

Chika noticed the Blonde boy's perplexed expression so looked between Kyoko and him in confusion. "Huh? What's going on?"

"Hmm… This is your daughter, Yamashina-san?" Kyoko confirmed. "You have no other children?"

"No," Yamashina shook his head. "Chika is an only child. Why do you ask?"

"Just who are you exactly?" Chika asked.

"They're asking after a missing person in the area," her father explained. "Do you know of anyone missing?"

"Missing?" the girl looked up in surprise. "No, I haven't heard anything like that."

"There you have it," Yamashina nodded to Kyoko. "I'm sorry we weren't of much help."

"Not at all," Kyoko smiled as she crossed her arms. "Thank you for your assistance. We were able to get the information we needed after all."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at his boss. _Is that something you should really be saying aloud, Kyoko-san?_

"By the way, Yamashina-san," Kyoko continued, "are you aware that your EDEN account was hacked?"

"EDEN?" the man seemed a bit lost.

"You can rest assured, however, that we have restored the account," the blonde woman nodded. "You can use it freely now."

Naruto frowned as he noticed Yamashina had fallen silent. The man seemed ill as he lowered his gaze to the floor.

"Is something wrong, Yamashina-san?" Kyoko continued.

Chika looked up at her father in concern before quickly turning towards the woman and her assistant. "Please, just… Please leave now!" Kyoko looked at her in surprise, but Chika shook her head. "It… it doesn't matter. Just leave! We don't know anything about any missing person!" She pulled on her father's arm, urging him to return inside. "Let's go, Papa!"

The two returned indoors and Kyoko brought her hand up to her face to consider what just happened. "Hmm. That was quite the brush-off," she ended up saying.

"I can't say that I expected it, but weren't you saying a bit too much, Kyoko-san?" Naruto asked with a frown.

"And yet, we still got a lot of valuable information," she smiled at him.

"I guess…" the boy reluctantly relented.

"This Chika is certainly Yamashina-san's daughter," Kyoko mused, "Which means our client pretended to be Yamashina-san's daughter for this case."

"Why would she do that?" Naruto asked, still unable to come to a definitive conclusion himself.

"I'm not really interested in why she was deceiving us on that front," Kyoko shrugged. "But she wanted to find something out about him. What's the connection between the two of them? That's what really piques my interest." She paused for a moment as she pondered something else. "There's one more thing I'm concerned about."

"What's that?" Naruto asked, tilting his head to the side.

Kyoko shook her head and smiled at him. "Let's leave that for now."

"Eh? You won't tell me?" the boy frowned.

"The client said she'd come back to the agency. Let's have ourselves some coffee and wait for her!" Kyoko's smile grew wider.

"Forget the coffee!" Naruto shuddered. "I want to know what you're thinking!"

"Come on," she smirked at him. "Let's head back to the agency."

It didn't take long for them to wait for Yuuko to arrive. Naruto curiously watched the raven-haired girl as she came in.

"Hello there," she greeted them with a nod.

"You came," Kyoko smirked as she glanced up at the clock, "And much earlier than I expected. You are indeed an excellent client. Please, take a seat on the sofa. The investigation has concluded. I can offer you my report."

Yuuko frowned, a bit surprised the investigation had actually been completed so quickly. Naruto continued to stare at her but said nothing as they all gathered around the coffee table. He only absently listened to Kyoko as she relayed their results. He decided to focus the majority of his attention on Yuuko's demeanor, hoping the prim girl would let something slip through her body language, facial expressions, anything.

"And here are the results of the investigation," Kyoko began. "A hacker team known as Zaxon was involved in the account raid."

Yuuko's eyes widened in shock. "Zaxon!?"

"Yamashina Makoto is not missing at all. He's living a normal life," Kyoko nodded, "Happily, with his daughter Chika and his wife." The girl tensed up as she guessed the investigators already discovered her secret. Kyoko didn't press the client though as she continued. "I'd like to bring this investigation to a close, if you don't mind," the detective smiled.

Yuuko looked up towards the woman and nodded. "Yes, of course. Thank you very much."

Naruto shifted his blue eyes to his boss in confusion. _Wait… We're just going to let her go just like that!?_ He shook his head and suspiciously frowned at their client. "Who exactly are you?" he demanded to know.

The raven-haired girl frowned as she closed her eyes. She decided to ignore his question so quickly stood up. "I'll be back," she simply said.

"H-hey!" Naruto prepared to stand between her and the door, but he stopped as soon as he heard Kyoko chuckling behind him.

"You're welcome at any time," Kyoko told their client with crossed arms. "Next time, feel free to use your real name," a sly smirk appeared on the woman's face, "Kamishiro Yuuko-san."

"Eh!?" Naruto blinked as his first guess had been right after all. _Kamishiro… Yuuko…!?_

Yuuko tensed up as she sensed the boy behind her backing away. She was a bit surprised too that the detective was able to discover who she was so easily, but then again, that should have been expected. She closed her eyes as she rested her hand on the door's handle. Without another word, she departed the agency.

Dorumon spoke up from the digivice "so she was a Kamishiro..." Naruto nodded before asking "how are you feeling? You were hurt pretty bad" Dorumon shook his head and grinned "don't worry. My shoulders stiff but all well that ends well. Now you got two badass champions as partners" they heard Ryudamon groan "you'd think the loss would have humbled you" Dorumon decided to shout in an over dramatic fashion "NEVER!" the three chuckled at this as Naruto went back to the cases board.

 **Meanwhile in Cron**

A hooded hacker was walking through Cron level 2, behind him was a Gotsumon "heh. This place ain't so scary" as he was walking he failed to notice the figure in the shadows watching him with a creepy grin

 **Hi everyone. Hoped you enjoyed the chapter. It's 3 in the morning so I'm going to bed now so good night**


	4. Special Chapter: The Digital Prankster

**Hey Everyone. Sorry for the long, long, long wait but Naruto: Cyber Sleuth is back. Again, sorry but I was extremely busy with college but its now quieting down So hopefully I can make more chapters. Anyway this is a special chapter as its not part of the main cyber sleuth story or part of the DLC so enjoy**

 **Special Chapter: Digital Prankster**

In the few years since Naruto's banishment, Konoha had not been doing well. The land of Waves and the land of Moon nullified any treaty they had due to Naruto being the reason they made the alliance in the first place. Taki refused to make a treaty as Naruto helped their leader, Shibuki grow a spine and while Suna kept their alliance, no doubt due to them still being weak from the failed invasion, they were on thin ice with Suna. While they still got work, people were hesitant to go to Konoha for problems.

Tsunade sighed and rubbed her head as she looked over the Village's financial state. While they were not completely bankrupt she could see them reaching that state in a few years. After Naruto was banished Tsunade had spent 3 days in her home crying, refusing to come out even to eat. It was thanks to Shizune and Jiraiya that she even stepped foot out of her home and thus she went back work as Hokage. She began to think about the former team seven. Sakura was forced out of the Ninja program after she demanded that Tsunade teach her to be a medic nin, which ended up with Tsunade punching her through a wall and removing her status as Kunoichi. Sasuke was still in prison, though these days he seemed calmer and just stared at the wall all day, the only thing he said was "I'm sorry" and "It's my fault". Tsunade guessed being in prison gave him time to reflect on his actions

She then thought about Kakashi. After Naruto's banishment he returned to ANBU and started taking A and S-ranked missions left and right to take his mind off his failure, barely communicating with the other jonin. Though he recently started doing less which she suspected was because of the strange new partner of his. Her thoughts were interrupted by Shizune "Kakashi-San is back from his mission" Tsunade nodded and let Kakashi in and looked to him "Welcome back Kakashi" she then looked to the strange animal at his feet "you as well Hackmon" Hackmon was a dragon-like creature with white armored skin, dark blue claws, gold eyes, and horns. He wore a red cloak with a hood that had goggles embedded in it.

Both Kakshi and Hackmon bowed and gave their mission report before leaving. Kakashi looked at his new partner and thought back to their meeting. During one of his A-rank missions he stopped at a nearby town and decided to see if he could find any information on Naruto. Unfortunately since Naruto's banishment it was liked he disappeared, no-one had seen or heard anything about anyone matching his descriptions. After finding no information he decided to continue with his mission to defeat a camp filled with missing nin, with half of them being Jonin. When Kakashi reached the camp he discovered Hackmon fighting the ninja and decided to help him. After seeing his strength Hackmon begged Kakashi to be taught by him, with Kakashi refusing due to him feeling unworthy of ever finding another student. Though it did not stop Hackmon from following him about and keep asking.

Kakashi was interrupted by his thoughts as he noticed more and more of creatures like Hackmon. He explained that they were "Digimon" and more began to show up after Hackmons arrival. Gai even had one that was designed like a turtle. He found it funny as even though Hackmon had dragon like features he still looked like a dog. He thought to Naruto again, Was he alive? Did he meet one of these creatures? Did he partner up with one? He gave a sigh and looked up to the sky "I hope you're okay Naruto…"

 **Back with Naruto**

Naruto and Kyoko were listening to Matayoshi talk about another case "So there's been a mass hacking spree?" Naruto asked as Matayoshi nodded "It happened on Kowloon level 2, this is the fifth attack this week" Kyoko raised an eyebrow "So how bad is the damage?" She asked and Matayoshi sighed "That's the strange thing. There's no real proper damage" The two tilted their heads at his explanation "anyone who gets attacked just has pranks pulled on them. The first person to get attacked had embarrassing photos from highschool posted on all his message boards, the second person to get attacked had all of the music on his digivice changed to band he hates and so on. There's nothing malicious in any attack" Naruto spoke up again "Then why come here?" Matayoshi sighed again "Because the police aren't doing anything due to the hacking being non-malicious… however I'm afraid what would happen if the perp did begin taking important information, like credit card details, social security and more. So I'd like the agency to find the hacker responsible before it reaches that level" Naruto nodded as Kyoko smiled "We'll accepted the case detective" Matayoshi smiled and lowered his hat "I knew I could count on you Kyo-Chan" Matayoshi left as Kyoko looked to Naruto "You know where to begin" Naruto nodded and used his connect jump to enter EDEN.

 **In Kowloon level 2**

Naruto began looking about "so this person uses hacking just to embarrass people?" Dorumon raised an eyebrow "Yeah. It seems to be getting out of control" Naruto said and Ryudamon looked up at him "How do you suppose we catch him Naruto-Dono?" Naruto thought for a moment and smirked evilly "Like a prankster" Dorumon and Ryudamon shivered at the smile before they all saw a familiar face "Yuugo!" The white haired boy in question turned around and saw the three "Ah. It's good to see you three again" Yuugo said with a smile "What are you doing here?" Dorumon said as he jumped on Naruto's shoulders to get to eye level with Yuugo "I'm looking for the one people call "The digital prankster" he targeted some Zaxon members recently. Just yesterday he attacked one with a Gotsumon" This made the three's eyes widen "He even got Zaxon Members?" Ryudamon asked "Indeed… However the strange thing is it was members I was going to kick out of Zaxon" Naruto tilted his head "Kick out?" Yuugo nodded again "They had begun attacking innocent civilians and according to some members they were abusing their digimon" Yuugo adopted a thinking pose as Naruto did the same "Maybe They're targeting people who mistreat Digimon" Yuugo nodded "but why would they attack people for mistreating programs?" Dorumon's eye twitched at this unintentional insult, but before he could speak Yuugo turned around "Anyway. It was nice seeing you. Try not to get attacked by the prankster" Yuugo walked away from the group

Naruto scratched his chin in thought "how do we find the prankster then? Any ideas?" Dorumon raised a finger "We could wait and see if we find the next person that mistreats digimon" Ryudamon shook his head "Who knows how long we'd have to wait for that to happen" Dorumon lowered his head as Naruto sighed "I guess we just walk around and see if we find the prankster" The two digimon nodded and Dorumon jumped off of Naruto's shoulder and the three began walking.

Naruto rubbed his shoulder as they were walking "You need to lay off the ramen" Dorumon gasped and pointed at him "Don't you dare! You can't just introduce us to the food of the goods and then cut us off from it!" Ryudamon nodded at his words "indeed Naruto-Dono. That is too cruel a punishment" Naruto sweatdropped at his digimons antics "fair point. I wouldn't want someone taking away my ramen either" The three began laughing until they heard a scream "Someone's in trouble"

The three began running towards the sound and saw Yuugo looking over a fallen hacker "Another member I was going to kick out" He muttered as Naruto looked him over and nearly threw up at what was on his digivice "Whats wrong?" Dorumon asked before nearly doing the same thing "OH GOD! HOW DID THAT EVEN FIT?! WHY IS HE WEARING THAT OUTFIT?!" Ryudamon decided not to look in fear he would do the same and suddenly sniffed the air around him "A digimon…" this got everyone's attention "Are you sure you don't mean the digimon in his digivice?" Yuugo asked as Ryudamon shook his head "No. See Digimon who belong to Hackers give off a scent similar to their tamer" Dorumon grinned cheekily "Does that mean we smell like Ramen and Puberty?" Narutos eye twitched and he pulled Dorumon's cheeks "Say that again Fuzzball!" Ryudamon coughed to get their attention as Yuugo shook his head at their antics "I'm getting three different scents here, One would be the hacker, another his digimon and the last one would be the attacker" Naruto raised an eyebrow "But then couldn't it be a hacker who doesn't use digimon?" Ryudamon shook his head "While digimon owned by tamers give off a similar smell there is still a difference between human scents and digimon scents" Dorumon thought of something "Wait…. How can we smell in cyber space" Yuugo decided to speak up "That's because Kamishiro wanted EDEN to be as real as possible. So everyone gives off a "smell data" so all 5 senses could be used while in EDEN" Everyone began thinking again as Yuugo's digivice went off "Fei? What's happening? ….I see. I'll be right there. I'm afraid I have to go" Yuugo walked away as the three waved to him

"Do you think you could follow a trail Ryudamon?" Naruto asked and Ryudamon nodded "It's faint…. But with me and Dorumon we should be able to" Dorumon and Ryudamon started sniffing around them while walking with Naruto behind them. They kept walking and saw a hacker who seemed to be kicking a Patamon "You useless hunk of data! You lost the scent!" The hacker kept kicking the digimon until he was hit by a purple blur "That'll be the prankster… Now!" Naruto shouted as his digimon tackled the purple blur. Naruto ran to his digimon and got a good look at the Prankster.

It was clearly a digimon, around Dorumon and Ryudamon's height, it's body was purple and so was the back of its head with its face being white. Its eyes were green and it wore red gloves and a red scarf. On its stomach was a yellow happy face "An Impmon. Should've guessed, these guys are known for pranks" Dorumon said as the now named Impmon was struggling "Let go you walking carpet! You smell like you haven't washed in weeks" Dorumon's eye twitched "Can I hit him?" Naruto shook his head "not yet. I want to ask him somethings" He looked down at the impmon "Why are you pranking people?" Impmon scoffed and looked away "Why should I tell you anything? All you humans are alike" Ryudamon growled "watch your tone you little nuisance! I will not allow you to insult Naruto-Dono any further" Impmon growled back "Can it, you overgrown lizard! Humans are alike! They hunt us down for our data, they take all the praise if we do good and abuse us and make us take all the blame if we don't. I've watched for weeks as filfthy humans abused their digimon and even deleted them without a second thought, some were even other Impmon! Are you saying I should just leave them alone and let them abuse their digimon? How is that fair?!" Impmon began panting after that long rant as Naruto looked down "You're right…. It's not fair. But that doesn't mean you should be doing this. Take it from a fellow prankster, actions have consequences so that's why we have to find a right way to deal with problems" Impmon scoffed and turned his head "You know…. Those we're actually some good pranks, kinda reminded me of some of my pranks when I was younger" Impmon turned his head back at him "oh yeah, what pranks did you do" He asked with a smirk "Lets see I dyed people's clothes pink, had people running around with signs reading "Im a little fairy boy" on their back, Painted a monument duing the day while wearing bright orange and some other stuff" Impmon gave an impressed look and Naruto nodded at his digimon to let Impmon go "Look, I know what its like to feel to resort to pranks to get back at someone for unfair reasons" Narutos hand shifted to his stomach as he gave a small smile, Making the three digimon look confused "But its not always the solution" Impmon turned away again before sighing "Fine. I'll stop as one fellow prankster to another"

Before anything else could be said Impmon was hit by a fire ball. Naruto turned around and saw three Zaxon hackers each with two Meramons "Looks like we found the prankster" One said with a sadistic grin as Naruto stood in front of them "Stop! He agreed to stop with the pranks" Another Zaxon thug scoffed "So what? He still needs to pay for humiliating Zaxon" He snapped his fingers his fingers as his Meramon charged up another fireball. Forutnately Naruto jumped in front of it before the attack could hit Impmon "Naruto! /Naruto-Dono!" Dorumon and Ryudamon shouted before glaring at the Meramon. The third Zaxon thug scoffed "Why take the hit for a stupid program?" Impmon looked at Naruto with wide eyes "W-Why?" was all he could ask as Naruto stood up "I want to show you Impmon…. That there are good humans in this world…. As long as I'm here I wont let you be injured" Naruto's digivice began glowing as did Dorumon and Ryudamon

" **Dorumon digivolve to….. Dorugamon!"**

" **Ryudamon digivolve to….. Ginryumon!"**

Dorugamon and Ginryumon charged at the Meramons. Dorugamon tackled one and swung his tail, hitting another. Ginryumon bit into one's neck and shot a spear at another. Unfortunately dealing with two each they had missed two more that were walking towards Naruto and Impmon. Dorugamon saw this and was about to charge but was grabbed by one of the Meramon and swung to the ground. Naruto grabbed Impmon and jumped away from one of Meramons punches **"Night of Blizzard"** Impmon tried sending a dark blizzard at the two meramon but the two broke free from the ice almost instantly and fired another fireball at the two, luckily Naruto side rolled to dodge the attacks "Why are you doing so much for me?!" Impmon shouted at Naruto, to which the blonde smiled at him "because you're my friend" Impmons eyes widened "We're both fellow pranksters. That immediately makes us brothers in arms" Impmon looked at the ground "You're the first one to call me friend…. Everyone calls me "Jerk", "Hellspawn", "Brat". Thank you." Naruto's digivice beeped with a new notification "Partner: Impmon" Naruto's eyes widened and looked at Impmon who started glowing along with Naruto's digivice

" **Power Metal"** Dorugamon fired a large metal ball at one of the meramon. **"Tekkoujin!"** Ginryu fired a spear that turned another Meramon into data. They both looked and saw Naruto and Impmon about to be attacked and saw a bright light from Impmon "No way" Dorugamon said as the light got brighter

 **Brave Heart starts playing**

" **Impmon digivolve to….. Icedevimon!"**

Data started swirling around Impmon and when the light died down a new figure was in his place. he had completely white clothing, fingers elongated into claws, devil's horns, tattered wings, and skulls on his shoulder and knee. He had the deep magenta Mark of Evil on his chest and on his left boot.

Naruto eyes widened at Impmons new form as Dorugamon and Ginryumon ran to him "Naruto! What the heck is going on?!" Naruto smiled at the two "Say hello to your new partner" Both digimon looked shocked and looked at Icedevimon

The last Zaxon hacker stepped back a bit in surprise before shouting at his Meramon. "Get him!" One Meramon lunged at Icedevimon with a flaming fist **"Ice punch!"** Icedevimon met the punch with one of his own. The zaxon hacker looked smug at this until his face turned to horror as his Meramons flames were turning to ice "Looks like my freeze is too much for you" Icedevimon said with a smirk **"Frost Claw!"** Icedevimon then slashed at the Meramon, turning it into data, before looking at the last one "W-Wait! Weren't you attacking us for deleting digimon?! Yet here you are deleting ours!" Icedevimon looked at the hacker "That is true, however. One: You all attacked first, this is self-defence. Two: You're Meramon had no issue attacking me and Three: I won't forgive anyone who hurts Naruto." He said this last part with a glare and looked back at the Meramon **"Icy Shower!"** Icedevimon fired icicles from his wings at Meramon and turned the last one into data. Icedevimon began walking towards the hackers "I could pay you back for all the mistreatment towards digimon" He held up a claw as the hacker backed away in fear before Icedevimon stopped "But that would make me no better than you, so I'll leave you to run with your tail between your legs" Icedevimon turned around and walked away from the hacker. The hacker gritted his teeth until he heard a roar behind him and saw Yuugo with Mugendramon "Y-Yuugo!" The hacker said as Yuugo glared at Icedevimon "So you're the one who humiliated Zaxon…." Before he could say anything else Naruto stepped between the two "I won't let you attack my new partner Yuugo!" Naruto said his digimon reverted to their rookie forms.

Yuugos eyes widened and sighed "How much of an irregular are you…." He muttered before turning around "Very well…. Since you only attacked Members that were to be kicked out, I'll overlook the matter. However anything that goes against Zaxon, Human or Digimon, will not receive the same mercy" He began walking away with the zaxon hackers behind him as Mugendramon looked at Impmon **"You got lucky this time punk."** It muttered as it walked with Yuugo. The air was thick until Dorumon broke the silence "Holy crap! That guy can talk after all" Everyone stared at Dorumon blankly before they all burst out into laughter as Naruto looked at Impmon "Welcome to team Cyber Sleuth Impmon" He said as he bent down and shook Impmons hand. No-one noticing a small shadow watching them

 **Back at the agency**

Kyoko frowned as Naruto finished his report "Please tell me you aren't going to make a habit of this" Naruto gave a cheeky grin "No promises" Matayoshi lowered his hat "Since there was no malicious intent, im trusting you to keep an eye on that troublemaker" Naruto nodded as Matayoshi stood up "Thank you for clearing this case" He said as he walked out. Once he left Kyoko sighed "You were lucky with Zaxon, If Yuugo wanted he would have deleted Impmon" Impmon paled in his digivice before Naruto looked up "Wait. I never told you about Yuugo…. How did you know?" Kyoko smirked at his question "My partner told me" Naruto jumped back in shock "You have a digimon partner as well?" Kyoko giggled at his reactions "I actually have 3, maybe you'll meet them someday" Naruto sat down on the couch and relaxed as Kyoko handed him a coffee mug. Naruto cringed but drank the coffee anyway as to not seem rude before passing out

 **Back at Konoha**

Tsunade sighed as she signed more paperwork until a noise was heard. She looked around until she saw what was making the noise and gasped in shock. In the centre of the room was a woman with purple hair with strange black and white clothing. The interesting thing was that she was phasing in and out _"Ah good. I've set up a connection…. Hello Senju Tsunade. My name is Mirei. I have information concerning one Uzumaki Naruto that you might be interested in_

 **Hey again people. Hope you liked the chapter. Again sorry for the long delay. Anyway this was a special chapter. These will happen from time to time. Also they will tend to be shorter than normal chapters. So Naruto has a new partner and I bet everyone will know the final evolution for this one. Hackmon being in Konoha is to intersect the two worlds at some point and he's Kakashi's partner. Anyway enjoy and sorry, hopefully I can keep a steady update going**


	5. Life of a Cyber Sleuth

**Hey Everyone. Glad you guys liked the last chapter, like I said hopefully my uploads will be more consistent now. Anyway this chapter will include the other Konoha Rookies. So to save me time describing them just imagine them in their shippuden outfits…. Except for Sasuke as he'll have prison clothes.**

 **Chapter 4: The life of a Cyber sleuth**

Tsunade looked as the Konoha rookies with their Sensei's walked in, with Jiraiya entering through the window despite her protests. She then looked over each of the rookies and saw that each of them had a strange partner as well

Kibas was a bipedal dog with a black nose and claws, yellow eyes, a white belly and mane, and white tail tip, feet tips, snout, inner ears, and a yellow cross-shaped mark on its forehead. It wore a red bandana, white bandages on its arms, and red and black boxing gloves on its hands. According to Kiba its name was "Gaomon"

Hinatas partner was a strange hound with white fur and green eyes. It carried a weird ring on its neck, as if it were a dog collar. Hinata said her partner was called "Plotmon"

Shino's partner was a bipedal ladybug with four arms with grey talons at the end of the first pair. It had large, green eyes, mouth-like mandibles, and two yellow antennae reaching out from its head. Its elytra was covered with grey spines. It was red and brownish green in coloration with black muscle in the face, neck, the brachium of its arms, and its thighs. Shino's partner introduced itself as "Tentomon"

Ino's partner was definitely strange. It had the appearance of a flowering bud with a green body with stretchy arms and legs, and a pink head with a yellow leaf on the top of it, and a pair of eyes and a mouth which resemble three black dots. Ino called her partner "lalamon"

Shikamaru's partner was strange as well. It was based on a grey and brass gear with cog-like hands. Shikamaru muttered that its name was "Hagurumon".

Choji's partner was a little more normal. It was a cute bipedal canine with white fur that is striped with green on its collarbone, paws, and the tips of its ears. Its most prominent features was its long, frayed ears and the solitary horn on in its forehead. Like a dog, it has black toes and pawpads. Choji's partner introduced itself as "Terriermon".

Neji's partner was strange as well. It was a small flying creature resembling a guinea pig with light blue eyes, bat-like wings which could possibly be its ears, and a short, stubby tail. Its underside was a light cream color, while its back and head were orange. According to Neji its name was "Patamon"

Tenten's partner was a bipedal reptilian creature with red eyes, a tail, and three digits on its hands and feet. It wore a golden armor that covers most of its body, and a white cape. Its armor has a claw at each digit, a black losangle-shaped object in the tail, a small blade-like object on each knee, an orange "0" on its left shoulder pad, and a sword-like horn on its helmet. The horn emited a blue light on its blade, and it has a silver "20" on its left side. This creature introduced itself as "Zubamon"

Lee's partner resembled a skunk-like creature with nine tails, blue eyes, and long ears. It was red with a white underbelly and violet markings. Lee loudly proclaimed that his partner was Elecmon.

Tsunade looked at the jonin and saw that so far only Kakashi and Gai had partners. Gai's partner resembled a green turtle that stood on its hind legs. It wore a blue helmet and in the center of its stomach was a yellow circle.

"You called for us Hokage-Sama?" Kakashi asked to which Tsunade nodded "I called you all here because some interesting news has reached me….. Explain Mirei" The other occupants in the room looked confused until Mirei appeared in front of them, still phasing in and out. This shocked everyone except for Tsunade. _"Good afternoon Konoha twelve….. or is it nine now?"_ Mirei asked with a smile "who are you?" Kakashi asked while keeping his guard up, Hackmon took a stance in case they were attacked. Mirei looked at Kakashi _"Do not worry Hatake Kakashi. I mean no harm and even if I did…."_ Mirei put her hand on Tsunade's desk and the hand phased through it _"I cannot directly touch anything here for the moment"_ Kakshi nodded and slightly relaxed with Hackmon doing the same "then why are you here?" Kurenai asked with everyone nodded _"I bring news of one Uzumaki Naruto, which im sure everyone in this room is interested in"_ This got everyone's attention "Y-You know where N-Naruto-Kun is?" Hinata asked while squeezing Salamon in excitement "H-Hinata…. T-Too tight" Salamon said making Hinata loosen her grip while apologizing "YOSH! I told you Naruto-Kun's flames of youth were too bright for him to die so easily!" Lee shouted in triumph with Elecmon joining in "Lee. Only the civillians thought he was dead… no-one of us did" Tenten rubbed her head at Lee's shouting with Zubamon patting her leg.

Mirei coughed to get their attention _"Yes he is alive. He was sent to a different world"_ Hackmon widened his eyes "So Naruto-San is in the digital world?!" Mirei shook her head _"He is not. He is in a world parallel to this one that connects to the digital world"_ Mirei snapped her fingers and a screen appeared in thin air, to the shock of everyone. On the screen was a video of Naruto hanging out with his partners in Kowloon "That's Naruto?! It can't be…. He's not a midget!" Everyone sweatdropped at Ino's outburst "hmmm. A Dorumon? Now that's quite the rare digimon" Gaomon said with Tentomon agreeing "Also a Ryudamon. Naruto-San has some rare digimon" Neji looked to Patamon on his shoulder "Can you explain please?" Patamon nodded "The furry purple is Dorumon. They're said to be really rare due to the fact they're ancient digimon" Zubamon pointed at Ryudamon "The yellow samurai one is Ryudamon. They're just as rare as Dorumon" Salamon pointed her paw at Impmon "The one with the red scarf is Impmon. They're known as the biggest pranksters in the digital world" Everyone had the same thought at this information _"Definitely Naruto's partner"_

Kiba grunted "How come that lucky bastard gets 3 partners?" Everyone chose to ignore Kiba and looked to Mirei, who played a new video of Narutos battles while in the other world. Everyone was shocked as they saw Dorumon, Ryudamon and Impmon digivolve, with salamon cowering in Hinata's jacket at the sight of Icedevimon. "What was that?" Shikamaru asked his partner, to which Hagurumon answered "That was digivolution. It's when a digimon enters a higher stage and becomes even stronger" Everyone looked to the screen to watch Naruto conversing with Kyoko _"That is his boss, Kuremi Kyoko. An associate of mine"_ Mirei answered the question someone was going to ask while pushing up her glasses

 **Meanwhile**

Sasuke kept staring at the prison wall. The once proud, arrogant backstabber had been reduced to nothing. He stared at the wall for most of the day and barely communicated to anyone. He thought back to what happened over the past few years. When he first got in the prison he had demanded to be released so he could fight Naruto again with the guards ignoring him. This had kept up for half a year until he decided to give up. After he stopped screaming he began to think back to his time in team 7. He began to realise that his constant rivalry with Naruto, while annoying at times, gave him motivation to train other than killing Itachi. He constantly saw how Naruto improved when given proper training and how quickly it happened. It made him feel inferior, the Uchiha prided themselves in being geniuses, but it seemed Naruto was the real genius with his rate of improvement. He went from the deadlast with only one skill to his name to someone who could defeat a tailed beast in the span of a couple of months. It infuriated Sasuke, seeing the rate of Naruto improving brought back memories of Itachi and their difference in skill.

Sasuke was interrupted from his thoughts by a bright light, which made him cover his eyes, and the the sound of two voices "Oof/ow." When his vision returned he saw, to his shock two strange creatures looking around the room.

The first one was a strange reptilian creature standing about 3 feet tall, and had ash black skin and light green eyes. It also had flattened forearms with broad, three-clawed hands. Its legs and arms seemed to be very vascular. Its tail was stubby, and its head and snout were almost as large as the rest of its body.

The second was a brown-eyed white-skinned lizard in a black pelt with white markings and black claws. A black horn protrudes at the top of its head and its belly was yellow with unusual white markings.

The fur covered creature smacked the other one in the back of the head "I told you not to touch the portal!" The other creature growled "Hey we're both okay! Plus I think we're in the human world" They both then saw Sasuke and looked ready to fight "who are you Human! Where are we?" The fur covered one asked "S-Sasuke Uchiha" Sasuke's voice was hoarse from not using it for over a year "We're in Konoha… in a prison" The two creatures stiffened "So why are you here? I remember reading that only bad people go to prison" The reptilian one spoke up as Sasuke looked away "Because im a traitor" He then began telling the two his story.

 **Meanwhile with Naruto**

"Kamishiro Yuuko…" Naruto frowned as he stared up at the ceiling of his bedroom. "I thought you looked familiar… but what brought you to the agency? Why ask us to look into Yamashina Makoto? Are you looking into EDEN Syndrome too?" He reached out his right hand and stared at the Konoha symbol printed on the back of his glove and sighed. "I know I'm not the only victim. You know someone, probably a family member, who's had it for eight years after all…" He curled his fingers so that his hand made a fist. "I think I understand how you feel but…" He brought his arm down over his face and sighed. "There's so much I don't understand…"

Impmon spoke up from his digivice "Hey Naruto… I've been meaning to ask. Why is the symbol on your glove so important to you?" His other partners nodded as they were curious as well "I guess its time I tell you guys" He then told the digimon his story. About how he was originally from another world, how he was an orphan hated for things beyond his control, becoming a ninja, His first mission outside the village, his nindo, the chunin exams, finding Tsunade, Sasuke's betrayal and his banishment before ending up in this world. After his story was over his digimon had shocked looks on their faces "Guess im a freak in over worlds as well" Dorumon shouted at him "Don't call yourself that! You're not a freak, you're a guy who was dealt a really shitty hand and had to make the most of it" Ryudamon nodded "Indeed. Naruto-Dono is the kindest person I know" Impmon chimed in "Yeah, you saved me and showed me not all humans are assholes, you're the best guy I know" Naruto smiled and wiped the tears from his eyes at his partners words "I will say this though… your story would make a very interesting TV show…. Maybe a good few seasons of an anime" Dorumon said with a grin as Naruto chuckled "Thanks guys…. For everything"

He rose to his feet and grabbed his goggles from the nightstand. After a quick cup of ramen, Naruto checked to make sure he had his key and wallets before closing the door to his room. As he slipped on his shoes, he noticed Kyoko was calling him.

"Ah, Kyoko-san. I was just about to—" he paused when he saw the detective was currently on the phone with someone else. He locked up his apartment and started for the station as he patiently waited for her to finish.

"Hmm, you just barely succeeded, then?" she asked the other line. "I haven't received any information from the assistant at this detective agency. Please get back to me with the information as soon as possible." Kyoko finally put down the receiver before turning her attention to Naruto. "I know it's your day off today, but something just came up."

"Alright," Naruto nodded. "Does it have to do with EDEN Syndrome?"

She shook her head. "You're not a police detective so at times like this you should just do nothing."

"But, Kyoko-san, I—"

"Anyway, moving along, I need your help with something else," she quickly cut him off. "I've put it on the whiteboard. You can take this one whenever you like. Come to the office when you're ready."

"Why not just give it to me right now?" Naruto suggested. "It'll save me the trip."

"Huh? You didn't understand what I meant?" Kyoko shook her head at him. "I can't tell you here… That's pretty much a rule, you know," she sternly stated.

"Client confidentiality, right?" Naruto smirked as he looked at the street around him. "Alright, I'm coming over now," the detective's assistant nodded.

 _Client: Kuremi Kyoko_

 _Place: Kuremi Detective Agency_

 _Details: This is a personal case… Help me with Matayoshi's case without being noticed. Discretion is required._

Naruto frowned at the note but accepted it anyways. He tucked it into a new folder and reported to Kyoko for more details. "So what's this case about?"

"It seems that a criminal calling himself the 'Mysterious Digital Face' has tipped the police off about his planned crimes. He told the Shinjuku Matagi—a cop who loves Shinjuku—that he was going to steal top secret police information," Kyoko briefed him.

"Eh!? That's pretty bold…" Naruto blinked at that. "But how does this involve us?"

The detective smirked. "This is of course a situation for the police to deal with. They've put Detective Matayoshi of the cyber crime investigation unit in charge. Such dramatic incidents tend to hurt the pride of the police force…"

"Ah… I see where this is going," Naruto crossed his arms.

"If the criminal manages to steal the data and gets away, the blame will fall on Detective Matayoshi," Kyoko nodded with a grim expression on her face. "If that's the case it will be a hard blow for us…" She smirked up at her up-and-coming assistant. "So, I need you to help Matayoshi with his investigation covertly. Do you understand what I mean by 'covertly'?"

"Well, I know the definition of the word, but…" the blonde male brought his gloved hand up to his chin.

"Huh? You have a question?" Kyoko crossed her arms.

"What exactly do you mean by 'covertly'?" Naruto asked. "I mean, this is Detective Matayoshi we're talking about. He'd come to us if he really needed help, right?"

"Matayoshi isn't very good at this kind of thing," Kyoko shook her head, "so I asked him privately if he needed some help… His response was 'This is a matter of pride for myself and the force!' and refused… But I'm not going to let this go so easily," she seriously stated, "so I would like you to support him 'covertly'."

Dorumon gasped "Like a ninja!" He said while smirking at Naruto, making him groan. Kyoko tilted her head at his outburst "I suppose so…" Ryudamon shouted at this "Unacceptable! I refuse to be associated with cowardly ninjas!" Ryudamon quickly realised his outburst and gave Naruto a look that read "No offense meant" Impmon laughed at this "Smooth, way to go ya walking period drama" Ryudamon growled at Impmon

Naruto decided to quickly change the subject "So who is this 'Mysterious Digital Face'?"

"Perhaps he was inspired by the 'Multifaced Criminal' Ranpo Edogawa and got his name from that," the detective shrugged. It seemed that Naruto was hiding something but decided it was unimportant for now "Back then, the mysterious man who inspired terror and madness in children… Kogorou Akechi was his name. His rival was a group of young detectives."

"I've never heard of him," the teen shook his head.

"You don't know about it because it was a bit before your time… Actually," Kyoko wore an amused smirk, "even people in my generation are too young to know about it." Naruto sweatdropped _"among a few other reasons"_ he thought before speaking up again

"I see… And the 'Shinjuku Matagi'?"

"I had never heard that phrase before either," Kyoko admitted. "It's most likely a nickname of some sort. At the end of the day, the kanji used may be spelled 'Detective' but it reads 'Cop'. 'Matagi' means 'bear hunter'."

"So a cop who works as a bear hunter?" Naruto pieced together. "Damn. He sounds badass" Dorumon chimed in again

Kyoko shook her head at him as they was getting off topic. "Please get to work as quickly as possible."

"Alright," he smiled. "But where should I start?" he asked himself with closed eyes.

"Huh? You want to know what you should do?" she smirked. Naruto opened his eyes and stared at her curiously. "This is about stolen information from the police, so try going to and asking groups of thugs on the street for information."

"Right… that makes sense," her assistant sheepishly laughed.

"I'll try and find out what was said in that tip-off. You go to Kowloon and ask around," Kyoko crossed her arms.

 **In Kowloon**

Naruto spoke with every hacker he encountered as he journeyed through Kowloon's second level. He didn't discover much until he met a whimsical hacker wearing an oversized blue cap who seemed as though he had information on the Mysterious Digital Face.

"Yeah, of course I know!" the boy nodded.

"Really?" Naruto's eyes widened. "Please tell me everything."

"Yeah, the 'Mysterious Digital Face' is a hot topic around her at the moment," the hacker smirked, looking around Kowloon. "The cops were asking me the same kind of questions earlier."

"The cops?" the detective's assistant frowned.

"Wait, are you asking around about him too?" the hacker suspiciously eyed Naruto. "Well I'm not saying nothing to no cop," he crossed his arms. "Cops and hackers are enemies, you know?"

"Hey, come on," Naruto gave the hacker a convincing smile. "I've got Digimon, don't I? That makes me a hacker, right? You can tell me."

He eyed the Digimon following Naruto before giving up his information. "This incident must be particularly embarrassing for the police. The criminal admitted to the crime before committing it. I know a hacker who hates cops more than anyone… Maybe that guy is the Mysterious Digital Face…" he said, pulling his cap down over his eyes.

"Do you know where I can find that hacker?"

"Huh? You want to know where that hacker is?" The whimsical hacker shrugged. "He hangs out in Shinjuku a lot. He's a fiery, moody, shady kind of guy. Cop or not, you're gonna wanna question him." With that, the hacker walked away.

"Thanks!" Naruto called out to him before calling Kyoko. "I just found out that there's a cop-hating hacker in Shinjuku."

"I just got the information from the tip-off warning," Kyoko nodded with a pleased smile. "It brought me here to Shinjuku, too. One way or another it looks like our criminal is in Shinjuku… Go find him as soon as possible!" she directed her assistant.

"Understood!" Naruto nodded before cutting the call. He turned towards the logout zone, but blinked when he saw a middle-aged man in a long green raincoat coming towards him.

"Huh?" Matayoshi smiled at him. "Oh, you're from Kyo-chan's office, right?"

 _Caught already!?_ Naruto's eyes widened. "Detective Matayoshi…!"

"Hey, what's with the 'Oh crap!' look on your face!? Did Impmon cause trouble again?" the old man frowned at him, ignoring the "Oi" from the prankster digimon. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm just a curious teen checking out Kowloon," the blonde nervously chuckled. "There's nothing wrong with that… Anyway, why are you here?"

"Huh? You want to know what I'm doing?" Matayoshi raised an eyebrow at the boy. "I'm on the trail of the Mysterious Digital Face. I've come to EDEN to ask around about him."

"You did, huh?" Naruto looked around Kowloon. "Oh… so that's what the rumors about a cop-hating hacker being in Shinjuku was about…" he thoughtfully stated.

"Huh?" Matayoshi crossed his arms and frowned. "You say you think that hacker who hates cops is in Shinjuku? A hacker who 'hates' cops, you say…" He took a few seconds to think it over before suspiciously frowning at the red-haired boy. "But how do you know that?"

"Like I said…" Naruto sheepishly scratched his face. "I was around catching rumors" He scratched his cheek as his partners started whistling while refusing to look Matayoshi in the eye

The Cyber Sleuth didn't think the veteran detective bought his lie, but Matayoshi definitely didn't push him any further than that. With a smile, the old man nodded to him. "Hmm, okay, well thanks for the info…" He turned around to leave but shook his head. "If Kyo-chan is getting you to do something, I want to know what it is."

"Eh!? But I'm not—"

"This is a matter of police pride!" Matayoshi cut him off and pulled his cap down. "It's mine to take care of!"

Naruto frowned as the man walked away. He brought his hand up to his chin and closed his eyes. "Pride or not, you can't force yourself to do everything alone…" the teen muttered to himself. He shook his head and opened his eyes. "Anyway, let's look for the hacker who hates cops in Shinjuku."

 **In Shinjuku**

"Looks like you've arrived in Shinjuku," Kyoko stated.

"Um… Kyoko-san…" Naruto frowned as he confessed something to her. "So while I was in Kowloon, I saw Detective Matayoshi…"

"Huh? You met Matayoshi while you were asking around Kowloon?" She didn't seem all that upset as she brought her hand up to her mouth. "I see, you told him about the information on Shinjuku," she guessed. "If Detective Matayoshi solves the case by himself with that information, that'll be great. Just to be sure, please continue your investigation in Shinjuku."

"Understood," the boy nodded as he started for the downtown area of Shinjuku.

Naruto talked to the hacker loitering the street, but frowned when he didn't have much information to share. Soon he spotted a police officer so quickly approached him to see if he had seen anyone suspicious around.

"A hacker who hates cops?" the officer asked. "I saw this guy. He didn't look like a hacker but he really hated cops…" he recalled. "He was whispering something hateful about cops by the access point to the station courtyard…" The officer shook his head and smiled though. "But I don't really think he hates the police… I mean, come on, we are soooo cool!" He pulled his hat down as his smirk grew. "Someday I'm definitely gonna…" he quickly stopped speaking and cleared his throat.

Naruto frowned at how odd the officer was, but he shook his head since the man at least gave him something useful to work with. "Well, thanks." The red-haired boy turned back towards the direction he came from. "All right. Let's go to the access point in the station courtyard."

As soon as he got to the access point, he noticed a suspicious man standing right by it. He carefully approached him, but the man already noticed the teen. "What is it?" the man asked him. "You got somethin' you wanna ask?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, I'm—"

"What the!?" the man frowned at him. "Who the hell are you!? You think you're so important! You asking around? You're a cop, right?"

Caught off guard by the man's temper, Naruto quickly shook his head. "Not at all! I'm—"

"You're just hiding behind the power the state gives you!" the man accused the detective's assistant. "Tyranny! Cruelty! This is a violation of my human rights!" With a yell he suddenly accessed the network terminal.

"It looks like he's run from the access point to EDEN," Naruto frowned. "Let's go after him!" He quickly held out his hand to the terminal and traced the man's signature directly into Kowloon. When he landed, Naruto quickly lifted his gaze and saw a Digimon at the man's side.

"I hate the police!" the man yelled. "I hate them! I haaaate theeem!" He shook his head. "Questioning? Bicycle registration number? I don't have time for that!" he crossed his arms. "I need to get home. My favorite anime show is about to start!" He looked towards Naruto. "Am I really that suspicious looking? Am I really that shady? The police are the enemy! The police are the enemy!"

"Calm down! I'm just here to investigate a hacker for the police." Naruto frowned as the man didn't seem to be listening. He also didn't appear to be a hacker with a Digimon. Rather, it was just like when Growmon possessed Mephisto-san. Still, if Naruto wanted to get anywhere in this case, he'd have to take out the Digimon before him.

The yellow Digimon glared at him. "You… you're the cops' Kowloony? So, you're their little lap dog!" He swung one of his whip-like arms towards the boy but was suddenly knocked away by Dorugamon "You guys sure are getting faster with digivolving" Naruto said with a smirk. Ginryumon and IceDevimon looked ready to join in but Naruto shook his head "Let Dorugamon handle this" The other two champions nodded and reverted to their rookie forms. The Vegimon swung one of its whips again but Dorugamon caught it in his mouth and used it swing Vegimon over his head before tossing him away **"Power Metal!"** Dorugamon fired a large metal ball that hit the Vegimon dead center and made it burst into data, making the man come to as Dorugamon reverted to Dorumon.

"Whoa!?" the man flinched. "Oh, what…" He looked around his surroundings in confusion. "Where am I!?"

"You were possessed by a Digimon and brought to Kowloon," Naruto explained.

"Huh?" the man frowned. "Possessed by a Digimon? I see," he shook his head. "I can't remember…"

"Do you know anything about the criminal stealing police data known as the Mysterious Digital Face then?" Naruto asked, bringing his hand up to his chin.

"Hmm?" the man crossed his arms and shook his head. "Mysterious Digital Face? He stole secret police data? What are you talking about?" Naruto lowered his hand and studied the man as he explained himself. "First off, I'm not a hacker… I admit I hate the police, but…" he sighed. "I was born with a strange, suspicious vibe so everyone always mistrusts me and treats me like their enemy."

"That's… unfortunate…" Naruto knit his eyebrows together. Dorumon chimed in "Yet hilarious" Ryudamon smacked him in the back of the head

"Anyway, I don't know anything about the Mysterious Digital Face!" the man cried.

Naruto sighed and let him go. "Sorry for bothering you then," he apologized. As the man walked away, Naruto closed his eyes. "Where did the investigation go wrong?" He frowned to himself as he tried to retrace his steps. "I did everything correctly… but—" He opened his eyes when his Digivice began beeping. "Uzumaki Naruto here," he quickly picked up.

"Did you catch the criminal?" Kyoko urgently asked. She didn't even wait for her assistant to answer before relaying more instructions. "Okay, just bring the criminal straight to the station and don't let Detective Matayoshi see you…"

"Uh… About that…" Naruto shook his head. "It seems as though we found the wrong guy."

"Huh?" the blonde detective blinked at him. "He wasn't a criminal, just shady?" Kyoko shook her head. "I see… That's a pity…"

"Sorry…" Naruto apologized. "I think I messed up somewhere along the way." He looked up towards the detective and noticed she was smiling. "Huh? You're not upset with the results?"

She shook her head as she calmly kept her cool. "There's nothing to be done for it. We just need to do the investigation again. Please come back here."

"Understood," he nodded before hanging up. He didn't move though as he began frowning to himself. "Ah…" he sighed. "If I can't even solve a simple case like this on my own, how am I supposed to find the information necessary to get my body back?"

 **Outside the terminal**

Naruto looked around as he came out of the Shinjuku terminal. He tensed up thought as he heard Matayoshi calling out to him. "Hey, you! What are you doing here?"

"Detective Matayoshi…!" the boy nervously turned around.

The old man laughed at the flustered boy. "Surprised, eh?"

Naruto crookedly smiled. "A bit…" He paused when he noticed the police officer from before behind the detective. "Huh? Who's that, Detective?"

"Hmm?" Matayoshi turned to look at the man following him. "You want to know who this is? This is the infamous 'Mysterious Digital Face'! I just arrested him!"

"Eh!?" Naruto's eyes widened. "Wait, are you sure!?"

"Huh? How do I know?" Matayoshi sternly frowned. "This guy isn't a real policeman. He's just a normal guy in a costume."

The criminal in the uniform smiled at the older man. "Just what you'd expect from Detective Matayoshi… You've truly earned the title of the 'Shinjuku Matagi'…"

Matayoshi crossed his arms and shook his head. "Right from the start, I never thought the criminal who did this hated the police. 'Shinjuku Matagi' was my nickname over ten years ago…"

"Ah… I see…" Naruto stared at the captured criminal.

"The person who knew this must have really liked the police…" Matayoshi nodded. "No, he'd have to be a complete fanatic. When I was going around Shinjuku asking about this and I ran into him, it came to me instinctively. When I looked into him I found out he wasn't a real cop."

"Then who is he really?" Naruto asked.

"He's a hacker who aspired to be a member of our cyber crime squad of the police, but kept failing the entrance exam. He broke under the pressure and admitted it when I cross-examined him."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the smiling criminal. For some reason, the man didn't seem all that disgruntled at being caught. Instead the man slightly pulled his cap down. "Wow. Japanese police are truly excellent to be able to find me out so easily…" he chuckled. "So now I will get to spend all day every day with these policemen… Well, I guess that's not so bad…" he laughed.

Naruto opened his mouth to speak before shaking his head. I should just leave it at that… He turned back towards Matayoshi. "So what now, Detective?"

"Well, it feels like catching this guy is its own reward, but…" the old man shook his head. "Well, I suppose that's enough." He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his raincoat and flashed the teen a grateful smile. "I suppose I should thank you for your help…"

"What do you mean?" the boy knit his eyebrows together. "I… didn't really do anything," he said, a bit disappointed in the results of his work.

"I was only able to catch him because you gave me important clues," Matayoshi said, patting Naruto's shoulder. "You helped me save face…" the old man nodded. "I thank you for that. Please pass my regards on to Kyo-chan and tell her I'm sorry for worrying her."

"Sure thing," Naruto nodded.

Matayoshi turned around and pulled his cap down. "Oh, and tell her she chose a good assistant. I look forward to seeing what type of 'specialist' you'll grow into," he laughed. "If you ever need assistance, don't hesitate to ask for it whether it's from me or Kyo-chan, eh?"

"H-huh!?" the teen stared at the man with surprised blue eyes. "U-uh, yeah! I-I will…!" Naruto managed to stutter as the detective escorted the criminal away. The redhead watched them leave before finally smiling to himself. He crossed his arms and closed his eyes. "Doggedly and with all your might, exhibit endurance like hard black iron…" Naruto opened his eyes and smiled. "I just need to keep my cool, right, Kyoko-san?"

Kyoko wore a wide smirk as Naruto finished delivering the news of the arrest to her. "Right, so the Mysterious Digital Face was safely brought to justice?"

"In the end, yeah," Naruto chuckled.

"You've managed to preserve the honor of the police force and of Detective Matayoshi," Kyoko gave him a satisfactory nod. "Good job. I suppose we should reconsider our low opinion of Detective Matayoshi now…" She took a moment to go over the entire case. "We tried to support him covertly at first, but… We weren't able to find the criminal by ourselves… He is an elite detective… That gut instinct of his… That's one of the greatest gifts you can have…" She became quiet for a moment as she further considered something. "Still…" she began with a smirk, "The 'Shinjuku Matagi'… 'Matagi' means a bear hunter, a person who can use the footprints and smell of a bear to track it down and move in for the kill." She nodded to herself and chuckled. "Of course, it's the perfect nickname for Detective Matayoshi."

"Alright, but what about Mysterious Digital Face?" Naruto curiously asked. "There really was nothing mysterious or digital about the actual culprit in the end."

"I think the real 'Multifaced Criminal' was sort of a fan of the police and private investigators. He's probably the first ever hot-cold personality type," Kyoko hypothesized with a shrug. "The same can be said with the actual culprit here."

"So their fascination with the law turned them into criminals?" the teen shook his head and sighed. "I guess there really are people of all types."

"You're one to talk about interesting personality types," Kyoko smirked at him. "But that said, you did a good job today. I made the right choice in giving this case to you. It seems you learned a lot from it."

"What do you mean?" the teen nervously asked her.

"Hmm… I'm sure you already know what I mean," she said, her smirk never wavering for a second. "You're my assistant after all." Kyoko shook her head as she returned her attention to another case she was working on. "Now, didn't you have plans earlier? You're free to complete them now. It is your day off after all."

"Actually," Naruto shook his head as he picked up the folder on her desk, "I think I'll stay and help out. You seem to have a lot on your plate, Kyoko-san."

"Oh?" Kyoko curiously looked up at him. "Are you sure you don't have a pressing matter to look into on your own?"

"Hm?" The blonde male gave her a small smile and shook his head. "It's not something I should rush into alone. Besides, you're working these investigations by yourself, right, Kyoko-san? I want to help you as much as I can. Like you said, I am your assistant. You shouldn't have to do this all on your own if I'm here."

The detective proudly smiled at how much he was able to grow after just one job. "If that's the case, I'll be relying on you then, my dear Watson."

 **The next day**

As she sipped her new coffee blend, Kyoko frowned at the draft that suddenly blew through the room. "Why in the world is it so cold inside Broadway?"

"Hm?" Naruto looked up from the stack of case files he had been reorganizing for her. "Is it? I think the temperature is fine."

She frowned as she studied her half-cyber assistant. "So not all physical laws hold with your body…" she mused. Kyoko shook her head as she sensed the office dropping another half degree or so. "Is something wrong with the AC? If you're not doing anything, find out what's going on," she nodded to him.

"But I'm—" Naruto paused when she coolly stared at him. He nervously chuckled and set the files aside. "Alright then. I'll have a look around when I go out for lunch. It's probably nothing though. I seriously don't feel anything different."

As he exited the agency to take his lunch break, Naruto saw a girl standing outside Mirei's consultation room shaking. "Brr…" the girl shook her head. "The back entrance is so c-cold… It's a little better here at least…"

Naruto frowned when he didn't really notice anything, but if a normal person thinks so, he might as well check it out. When he arrived at the back entrance, he looked up to the blond boy that usually took a break in the area and saw him shivering too.

"Whoa!" the other teen shook his head. "It's f-f-freezing in here! Did the AC break or something?" The boy looked towards the vents with a frown.

Naruto followed his gaze and blinked when he noticed something strange about the vent. Is that a digital distortion of some sort? He carefully approached it and blinked when his Digivice received an incoming transmission. "Huh…!?"

An image of a pale, brown-haired girl came up on the display. She didn't say anything, but she did seem a bit dreary. After a while, the transmission ended.

Naruto frowned. "Her voice cut out." He looked around again but noticed the distortion was gone. "I wonder what's up…" His Digivice rang again and he quickly picked up, thinking it was another transmission. To his surprise, it was Kyoko.

"Me again," Kyoko nodded to him. "I've got a new case for you. Why don't you drop on by so we can talk?"

The blonde knit his eyebrows together as it looked like he would have to forego his lunch break today. "Alright... If it's a case, I'm heading back now" Naruto sighed "oh sweet ramen…. We'll have to be apart today…" His digimon bowed their heads at this "No man should have to suffer like this" Dorumon stated

 _Client: Broadway Management_

 _Place: Broadway_

 _Detail: There is something wrong with the air-conditioning in Broadway. Find the cause._

Naruto blinked at the note in his hand. "So, how does this warrant an investigation?" he asked as he turned towards Kyoko.

"From what I gather, the air conditioning inside Nakano Broadway is on the fritz," she told him. "It just keeps pumping in cold air constantly and nobody can switch the heating on."

"Okay, but shouldn't that be a job for an electrician? Or a mechanic of some sort?" Naruto crossed his arms. "It's just a problem with the cooling system, right?"

"The thing is," Kyoko shook her head, "nobody can find anything wrong with it and the businesses are at a lost on what to do." She smirked as she saw it click together in Naruto's mind. "That's where we come in. People aren't getting much work done, so I told them to leave it to us! If we can get to the bottom of this mess, I'm sure they'll just love us forever for it!"

"So you intend to use this case to up our reputation…" Naruto crookedly grinned. "You made me skip lunch for—" he paused when his Digivice rang. "Hello? This is Aiba Naruto speaking." He blinked when the dreary girl from before appeared on the display. "Huh? You again?"

"Huh? You keep getting transmissions from someone?" Kyoko curiously hacked into Naruto's Digivice to see who it was. "Hmm… Well, isn't she a cutie," she teased her assistant.

Naruto smirked at that. "Oh, so you think so too? I don't think she's my type," he chuckled. _"Then again the women in my life right now are gorgeous…"_ While he did not feel any attraction to Kyoko as he saw her as a sister figure like Tsunade and Mirei was a bit too mysterious for his taste he thought back to Nokia and Yuuko. Nokia was like Ino, she was loud and abrasive… but he knew that Nokia was always honest and true to herself, something he liked. Then thinking of Yuuko, If Nokia was like Ino then Yuuko seemed similar to Hinata, except with a bit more backbone. He quickly shook his head _"Think of cute girls your age later dammit!"_

Kyoko ignored his action before she noticed something strange about the transmission. "The white noise in this is really bad. I can't make out what she's saying. Where's this coming—" she shook her head when the call came to an abrupt end. "Damn, it cut out."

"The first time she contacted me, it was around the area where it was the coldest," Naruto told the detective.

"What? You're saying the same transmission came in where it was cold?" Kyoko took a moment to think things over. "Hmm… We might be closing in on the cause. If so, our next step is to resolve this thing, plain and simple."

"Yeah, the sooner we do it, the sooner I can grab a bite," Naruto groaned as he placed a hand over his stomach. He shook his head since now wasn't the time for that. "So what do you need me to do this time?"

"I'm going to see if I can figure out the signal's origin. You ask around about the air conditioning," she nodded to him.

"Understood!" he nodded. Naruto paused for a moment. "Wait… I can probably grab some ramen from upstairs along the way. Lunch problem solved! RAMEN!" He screamed as he ran with his digimon cheering in triumph.

 **20 minutes later**

Naruto patted his stomach as he walked away from the ramen stall, leaving a pile of 30 ramen bowls, he wanted to eat more but he had a job to do. Luckily the owner of the stand told him to ask the owner of K-Café about information. On his way there he bumped into a black haired boy wearing a blue hoodie coat, both quickly saying "sorry" before continuing walking. The black haired boy he bumped into looking at him for a sec "guess he's in a hurry" He then looked at his watch before panicking "Oh crap! If I don't hurry it's the Meme-Tan for me" The black haired boy began sprinting

Naruto went up the stairs towards the fourth floor and turned the corner to get to K-Café. When he saw the line leading into the small establishment his face slightly fell. Crushing the used napkin in his hand, he shook his head before forcing his way into the small café.

"Sacchan!" he called out to the part-time maid. "Is the master available? I need to ask about Broadway's cooling unit!"

Sacchan quickly pulled the detective behind the counter. "Boss, Aiba-kun's looking for you!"

The raven-haired man nodded as he heard. "You wanna know how the AC broke? Beats me," he shrugged. "I have no idea. It's odd. We don't have a central unit anymore, so how could everyone's AC go out?"

"Central unit?" Naruto knit his eyebrows together.

"Huh? You don't know about the central unit?" The owner smiled as he happily shared the information with the young teen. "Back when this place first opened, there was a big underground unit that controlled the AC for the whole building. Sure feels like the old central unit going out. The way it worked was that every store circulated that cool air up to their stores with fans."

"Underground?" Naruto tilted his head to the side as the building design didn't make any sense. "Why was there a central unit underground at all?"

"Well, that was to refrigerate a certain something," the owner laughed. "What do you think it was?"

"Ice cream?" the blonde wistfully answered.

"It was Japan's oldest vacuum tube computer!" the man exclaimed. "Can you believe it? The room that computer was housed in was right here in Nakano!"

"Eh…?" the teen crossed his arms. "Is it still here?"

"Sad to say, I have no idea what happened to it," the man shook his head. "There's nothing left to it anymore. And even if there were, there are no records remaining. Nobody remembers where it was either. The room itself might as well be an urban legend."

"But it really did exist, right?" Naruto confirmed.

The man shrugged as he didn't really know either, despite explaining it all to the boy as thought it was all true. "I can tell you one thing though, it's really cold…" He broke into a sleazy chuckle. "Although it's done wonders for coffee sales today."

"Well, thanks for the information," Naruto smiled. He wrestled his way out of the café before noticing Kyoko was trying to reach him.

"I've figured out where that signal came from, so get back to the office when you can, all right?" she told him.

"I discovered a few things too," he nodded. "I'll be there in a few minutes."

Kyoko frowned when she noticed a noodle on her assistant's face. "Were you eating on the job again?"

"It was technically my lunch break when you sent me to work," Naruto pointed out with a shrug. "I got hungry."

"Well in that case, you must be thirsty now," Kyoko nodded. "I'll prepare some coffee for when you'll get back." She cut the transmission before Naruto could say anything else.

Naruto weakly laughed to himself as he slowly made his way back to the office. "Oh, how cruel the coffee gods are…" Dorumon spoke up "Can I have your instant ramen packs if you die" Naruto frowned "No. I'll carry them to my grave" He spoke with all seriousness before laughing a little.

 **Back at the office**

"Nice work with your investigation," Kyoko complimented her assistant as he choked down his coffee. "Now what have you got to report?"

"Apparently, Broadway used to house Japan's oldest vacuum computer. It's in a room hidden somewhere in the building, but it's related to the building's central cooling unit." Naruto grimaced as the coffee's aftertaste was lingering a bit longer than he wanted to but continued. "If we find that room, we might be able to fix the AC."

"Hmm…" Kyoko brought her hand up to her chin pensively. "This is the first I've heard of that computer room. But with that information, it's all starting to click for me now."

"So you know where that room is?" Naruto asked.

She nodded her head. "Like I mentioned before, I've figured out who the girl in those transmissions is. Her name's Yuki Fuyume. She was a breakout idol from a few decades back."

"But the girl is a bit too young, isn't she?" the boy knit his eyebrows together as he brought his gloved hand to his chin.

"What we've been seeing… the avatar on the screen is her when she was in her prime as an idol," Kyoko explained. "Somebody is therefore using a terminal inside Nakano Broadway and broadcasting her likeness."

"So… you're thinking a hacker or a Digimon," Naruto concluded.

Kyoko crossed her arms, proud that he was able to figure out that much. "And the signal seems to be coming from the fourth floor. Looking at the map, its right inside a wall at K-Café."

"That narrows it down to a Digimon," the Cyber Sleuth nodded. He looked up in surprise though. "Wait… If that's the case… how am I supposed to access a wall!?"

The detective chuckled to herself. "The whole thing has played out like a horror story, hasn't it? A long lost idol relaying her message from inside a wall…" She ignored her assistant's groans. "But with your report, it's all coming together now."

Naruto smiled at her praise but still crossed his arms. "But a wall?"

"We've uncovered a piece of Nakano Broadway history that not even the owner of K-Café as the go-to historian could claim to know. But enough talk," she smiled, rising from her seat. "It's time to head back to K-Café. I'll be coming along"

"Good, because I seriously want to know how I'm going to Connect Jump into a wall."

As they left the office, they spotted two students of Inoden walking past. One boy shook his head as he lowered his phone. "I got a message from a girl and when I answered it…" he shivered. "It got cold all of a sudden. It's the 'Snow Woman'! She's cursed us! It has to be her!"

His shivering friend shook his head. "I-I can hardly believe it… But it definitely has been really ch-chilly in here. I've got a bad feeling about this. Maybe I'll just go home…"

As they walked away, Kyoko chuckled to herself. "Heh, the Snow Woman. The MO sure does fit that folktale, though. Even the idol's name, Yuki Fuyume, means 'Winter Snow Woman'. Snow Woman herself shows up in a lot of stories from regions with cold climates. This is definitely the first time she's taken form as an old 80s idol. But it's pretty fitting for Nakano Broadway, all things considered," the woman continued to chuckle.

"But it's not a ghost… It's probably a Digimon…" Naruto seriously crossed his arms. "Maybe…" He sighed as he was still wrapping his mind over the whole wall thing. "Most likely…?" He shook his head and chuckled to himself. "I don't even know anymore…"

"Still, if we don't act quickly, she's going to damage this place's reputation," Kyoko reminded him, "so let's get a move on already."

"You're the one who was distracted first!" Naruto shook his head as he took off after her. "Kyoko-san!"

Naruto blinked as the crowd of people around K-Café let Kyoko into the store with ease. He didn't complain though as he quickly followed in after her. He nervously looked around as it would be difficult to do a Connect Jump without someone noticing. Still, they could probably just blame whatever strange phenomenon it was on the "Snow Woman". Maybe the ghost story would be useful after all.

The detective's assistant paused when he noticed Kyoko wasn't interested in talking to the owner, but was staring at a wall. He blinked too when he noticed she was staring straight at a digital distortion with a confused frown on her face.

"This is it…" Kyoko stated comparing the data from her pink-lens Digivice to the actual location they were standing at. "The transmission should be coming from the other side of here," she placed her hand over the distortion. She shook her head as she couldn't find anything suspicious at all. "Yet there's no door and there are no signs of the wall being tampered with… What's going on here…?"

"You can't see it, Kyoko-san?" Naruto asked while watching the light blue distortion flicker. She looked over to him curiously as he touched the wall. As soon as he did, his Digivice rang and the image of Yuki Fuyume appeared again.

"Another transmission…" Kyoko noted. "That just about confirms we're in the right spot, then."

"Of course, we are…" Naruto nodded.

Her eyes narrowed on her assistant. "I don't… I don't like the looks of this," she admitted to him.

"What!? Why not?" he asked. He paused when he felt a strange tingling sensation wash over his body. He quickly looked down at himself but was glad to see his body remained intact. He did notice, however, the sound of the AC kicking into high gear. "Huh…? Did the AC just go into full blast? Was that the idol's doing?"

Kyoko nodded as she crossed her arms. "It's like… she's noticed us trying to meddle with her… and now it's even colder. You're probably less… affected by her tricks thanks to your unique body."

Naruto shook his head. "I sensed something strange though…" he told the detective. He shook his head as he held his hand up to the distortion again.

"Oh, did you find something?" she asked.

"This entire time there was a digital distortion here," he quickly explained. "It looks like I'm the only one who can see it."

"I see…" she nodded. "So there's an entry point into cyberspace inside that wall."

"So this is how I'll Connect Jump into a wall," Naruto smirked to himself. He worriedly looked back at his shivering boss. "Kyoko-san…"

"Don't worry about me," she shook her head at him. "You go on ahead and get in there!"

With a curt nod, the Cyber Sleuth disappeared into the strange network.

 **In the network**

Naruto made it into the deepest recesses of the network before he spotted the idol known as Yuki Fuyume. His eyes widened in confusion as there was no way any other human could have been here. He hurried over to her at once but noticed she had been expecting him.

"You… came…" she gratefully smiled at the blue-eyed teen. "Thank… you…"

The girl suddenly disappeared and in her place was a small cat-like Digimon that Naruto's Digivice quickly identified as a Wanyamon. "Please…" the Digimon stared at the boy with pleading eyes, "help… me…"

Just like the girl, the Wanyamon disappeared. Naruto looked around for any sign of the Digimon but he sensed another distorting wave crash into him. He frowned as it probably meant that Broadway was getting even colder.

He clenched his teeth together as he tried to come up with a way to fix the situation. "Alright… That Digimon called me here for a reason. If he wasn't the cause then something else is!" He flinched as a sudden chill washed over him. He brought his arms up to protect his face as chilling snowflakes flew towards him. "H-huh…? I feel cold…?" He carefully looked past his arms and saw a snowman-like Digimon running towards him.

"COLDER…" the Digimon breathed, its breath visible in the cyberspace. "IT'S NOT COLD ENOUGH! NOT UNTIL EVERYONE IS FROZEN!"

The snowman digimon was knocked back by IceDevimon. Naruto only sent him out due to his cold body being unaffected **"Frost Claw"** IceDevimon slashed the snowman and pushed it back but it quickly went on the attacks **"ZETTAI REIDO PUNCH!"** The snowman punched Icedevimon making him stagger **"Icy Shower"** Icedevimon fired icicles at the snowman but it seemed to barely hurt it "Icedevimon, he's ice as well! Try a non-ice attack!" Icedevimon nodded after getting hit again **"Razor wind"** Icedevimon flapped its wings and created a slice of wind that cut the snowman digimon in half and dispersed it into data.

Once the digimon was gone Icedevimon reverted to impmon and Naruto hugged him "Good job" Impmon chuckled and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. the Wanyamon they met before started hopping towards them

"Brr, it was so cold!" the small Digimon shivered. "Thanks for taking care of him! That was one nasty glitch!" He happily jumped into Naruto's lap. "You saved the day, really! You must have come over when you heard my voice, right?"

"Not really…" Naruto blinked at the Digimon as the creature affectionately rubbed his head against the boy's hand. "I came here to investigate as a Cyber Sleuth."

"You didn't?" the Digimon frowned. "You're a Cyber Sleuth working a case? I don't really get it," he shook his head. "But whatever," he chuckled, "all's well that ends well! Yukidarumon's rampaging really did cause so much trouble!"

"Yeah, it did," the boy nodded before knitting his eyebrows together. "But… uh… who are you?"

"Huh? Who am I?" the Wanyamon blinked at him. "Uh, well… to be honest, I don't really know myself."

"Really?" Naruto curiously stared at the Digimon with wide blue eyes. He's actually… really cute… he thought as he began petting him.

The Digimon purred at the boy's actions. "I've been stuck asleep inside this wall the whole time, you see." He suddenly jumped out of the boy's lap when Naruto's Digivice began to ring.

"Hey," Kyoko greeted her assistant. "It's finally stopped blowing cold air here. Great job! You did so much, you must be tired. It would have been a real sad state of affairs if we'd somehow managed to freeze to death here in Tokyo, of all places."

"That's true…" Naruto laughed. "But, uh… Kyoko-san… I found something interesting." He showed her the Digimon that was now playing with his team. "He doesn't know who he is… and I kinda want to help him…" he said with a slight blush on his face.

"Hmm? You found a cat Digimon with amnesia?" Kyoko stared at the small creature with intrigue. "Well, you solve one mystery, only to stumble into another, it seems. Come back here and we'll look into it."

 **At the office**

Kyoko studied the strange Digimon with great interest. "An amnesiac Digimon, huh…?" She shook her head and smirked to herself. "Every time I think I've seen everything, I get proven wrong yet again." She nodded as she addressed the Wanyamon. "I take it those transmissions with Yuki Fuyume were your doing, then?"

"Yep," the Digimon nodded. "I wasn't able to move around once Yukidarumon started going crazy, so I had to call for help somehow and I sent out those messages." He noticed Naruto frowning at him and laughed. "Well, I did come from a vacuum tube computer inside a wall!"

"So I really did access that old computer network?" Naruto blinked in surprise.

"Then that means that vacuum tube computer was really there behind the wall, this whole time…" Kyoko mused.

"I'd been asleep inside that computer for a reeeeally long time," the Wanyamon nodded. "I only woke up just recently. And when I did, I had no idea who I was or what I was doing inside that wall, so I decided to go and see what I could learn. That was when I stumbled upon an intranet connecting the vacuum tube computer to the rest of the building."

"Intranet…?" Kyoko brought her hand up to her chin. "You must mean the networking lines that only operate inside Nakano Broadway."

"Yeah," the Digimon jumped. "So as I was just playing around, that was when Yukidarumon suddenly appeared. He was originally a Digimon that was created as a result of a glitch in the air conditioning system. But he managed to use the intranet to sneak into the vacuum tube computer I was living in!"

"I see," Kyoko nodded. "It all makes sense now. That must have been why nobody could find anything wrong with the system when they checked it."

"So it was a job only we could accomplish," Naruto stated.

"Yukidarumon just went completely insane and wouldn't listen to me," the Wanyamon sighed. "Eventually I couldn't even move with all of that constant cold. It was terrible…"

Naruto sympathetically stared at the adorable Digimon. "How awful… I had no idea. A cute critter like you being bullied by a bigger Digimon like that…"

Kyoko shook her head at her assistant but crossed her arms as she considered the old vacuum computer. "It's hard to believe such an old computer was even still operational to begin with too… But its existence is probably a remnant of the centralized AC system the K-Café owner mentioned before. The wiring must have been hooked up pretty poorly for Yukidarumon to be able to wreak such havoc, then… And therein lies the root of how this all managed to happen. I imagine even our conversation right now must be going through that intranet, as well."

"Aw…" Naruto frowned. "If that's the case, you're bound to Broadway… I was hoping I could take you to EDEN… I want to raise an adorable Digimon like you…" His digivice beeped as his partners appeared on the screen "Are we just invisible?" Dorumon said with a growl as Naruto stammered and started ranting about how they're the best partners

"By the way," Kyoko continued to ignore the boy, "is there a reason why you… chose to appear as an idol in those transmissions?"

"Why?" the Digimon blinked at her. "She was just cute, I guess."

Kyoko frowned at the digimon. "Um?"

"Yeah, it's simple!" the cat-like creature agreed. "I just thought someone cute like her would make someone want to come in and help me! I picked Yuki Fuyume specifically because, well… she was amazing when she was really popular! She could sing, she could dance, and her looks… Fuyume had everything you could want in an idol!" The Digimon jumped up as he remembered something else. "Oh yeah! There was also a world's fair around the time her career was really starting to take off! There was such a long line for the moon rocks…" The Wanyamon paused and frowned to himself. "Wait… Why do I… remember that? I don't even know my own name…"

Naruto blinked at the Digimon. "Eh…? That's a lot of strange things to recall… What's up with that?"

"I think I get what's going on here…" Kyoko nodded. "It looks like we've uncovered a decades-old time capsule."

"Time capsule?" the Wanyamon looked towards the detective in confusion. "What's that?"

"Your memories aren't just raw bits of information," Kyoko explained. "They're more than that. They have a certain… humanity to them, let's say. I bet you're somebody's old 'memories', stashed away along with that vacuum tube computer you've been living in. That's what time capsules are for."

"That's what I am?" the Digimon wryly smiled.

"But, memories or not, that doesn't make you any less empathetic a creature to encounter…" she smirked, looking over towards her assistant who was still staring at the Wanyamon like a young child wishing to adopt a lost kitten. "Either way, this case is wrapped up now."

"Eh? Really?" Naruto frowned, disappointment apparent on his face.

"We'll look into what's up with this cat Digimon later," she reassured him. "Truly, there's no other place quite like Nakano," the detective chuckled.

"There really isn't," her assistant smiled as they bade the small Digimon farewell for the time being. He crossed his arms and smiled. "Well, this is one report I don't mind writing out…" The teen bounced up and down as he faced his boss. "I got to show off some awesome skills"

She chuckled at his enthusiasm. "And here I thought you hadn't been looking forward to the case…"

"Eh?" Naruto was immediately pulled back to reality and Kyoko noticed he was his usual self again. "I hadn't… But it did turn out to be a job that only I could complete due to the nature of my existence," he frowned.

Kyoko frowned at his lack of confidence in his position as her assistant. "Still," she smirked at him, in the hopes of cheering him up, "you have a real knack for getting us involved in a lot of stuff, so thanks for always keeping it interesting around here."

The blonde eased up at that. "Heh… Thanks, Kyoko-san…"

 **Back at Konoha**

Tsunade smiled as it seems Naruto was happy in this new world. She was brought out of thoughts when Shizune walked in with news that surprised her "Sasuke Uchiha wishes to see you"

Tsunade entered the prison and saw, to her shock two creatures with the uchiha "Hokage-Sama" He said, his voice still hoarse "I wish to speak with you about BlackAgumon and BlackGabumon here…."

 **Hey soryy this one took a while. I'm still finishing off assessments for collage…. But I hope you enjoy this chapter**


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